Are there any good sale prices for wholesale organic dyes? I'm starting a business in organic clothing and I'm trying to find a price on materials I need.

First, you'll have to use different words. "Organic" dyes are not natural dyes; instead, they are chemical dyes that are made from organic chemicals, which include petroleum. If you want plant-derived dyes, you'll find them more easily if you use the word "natural" to search for them, rather than "organic". All synthetic dyes are considered organic chemicals.

Unfortunately, you cannot find natural dyes for low prices anywhere. Huge amounts of each natural dyestuff are required to dye a pound of fabric. You will need one to three pounds of most dye plants to dye one pound of fabric, which would require only one teaspoon of a good fiber reactive dye. Natural dyes can actually be worse for the environment than the less toxic of the synthetic dyes, because they require dangerous metal ion mordants in order to stick to the fabric. Chrome mordant in particular gives wonderful colors, but is an environmental hazard, and causes cancer. The safest mordant is alum, but even it has caused deaths in people who inadvertently swallowed it, so it is dangerous to use around small children, who can be harmed by much smaller quantities. In contrast, the Procion MX dyes used in synthetic tie-dye kits have never caused a death, because they are pretty much non-toxic.

The safest dyes include synthetic dyes manufactured by Dystar that have earned Oeko-Tex certification, including their Remazol fiber reactive dyes. These dyes do not require the use of mordants and stay bright years longer on the fabric, which enables the garments to last longer, saving the environment from the costs of replacing faded and unwanted clothing. See "Are Reactive Dyes eco-friendly?".

If you want to buy natural dyes in spite of the mordants and the expense, look at Aurora Silk and at Earthues, two highly reputable sources of natural dyes in the US. Earthues dyes can also be purchased through Paradise Fibers; this web site is an affiliate of Paradise fibers. For contact information for these and other dye suppliers, see "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".

(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)


[Portions of this answer were first published, by me, on Yahoo answers, on September 30, 2008.]