Name: Kane
Country: Australia
Message: Hi, sorry to bother you again about my school work, but, I have another question to ask. On my assighnment sheet, it asks the question, has the desighner considerd the environmental impact of their work? I was wondering if you could give me an answer to this question. Thank you.

This happens to be a frequently asked question. As it happens, the small quantities of dyes I use are safe to dispose of down the drain. Microorganisms in the sewage treatment plant, or, for some people, septic tank, break them down. There is no harm done to the microbial life essential to the function of the septic tank. However, large textile mills must consider the effect of that vast amounts of untreated effluent they discharge. They often do not use any sort of sewage treatment systems, and the sheer vast quantities of dye waste they produce can be very serious. In contrast, dyeing by hand on a very small scale is not a problem.

Hand dyeing with fiber reactive dyes, which are by far the best dyes for cotton, is mainly a problem for the amount of water used. The Procion MX dyes I used must be washed out repeatedly after use, to remove excess unattached unbonded dye which has somehow become associated with the fiber. This is no problem at all in the high-rainfall part of the world in which I live, but it could be very expensive and environmentally incorrect for someone who does a lot of hand dyeing and lives in a drought area. In those areas, fabric paints, though less durable, may be a better choice.

Dyeing in the textile industry requires immense ammounts of salt which is another serious problem for disposl. In contrast, tie-dyeing does not use salt at all. It is only the high-water-volume sort of dyeing, the type used for solid colors, that requires large amounts of salt.

There is also a question of ecological impact of the manufacture of the dyes we use. The German dye company Dystar has Oeko-Tex certification for their Remazol and Procion H-E dyes, signifying that they are ecologically non-damaging to produce and harmless to the wearer of the clothing dyed with it. Many dyes are now manufactured at various factories throughout China and India, however, and it seems likely that some of them fail to use environmentally sound practices. This is also a problem for all people who use any of the manufactured items common in our culture, such as plastic bottles, synthetic clothing whether dyed or undyed, public or private transportation, and so on.

Also see the following All About Hand Dyeing Q&A questions in this blog.

• "Are Reactive Dyes eco-friendly?"
• "Dye Safety"
• "What are low-impact dyes, and why are they considered low-impact on the environment?"

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