Dyeing Process

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Dyeing
process

Water use in textile production

Textile production needs water – including for dyeing. When fabrics are dyed in batches, the European Commission gives reference values of 10 to 150 litres per kilogram of fabric. This includes washing, rinsing and cleaning the equipment. Producing all the clothing, footwear and household textiles purchased by EU households in 2022 consumed around 5.3 billion cubic metres of groundwater and water from rivers and lakes worldwide. That volume is equivalent to the annual household water use of more than 100 million people (calculated with 124 Liters per person/day).

GLOBAL WATER POLLUTION

20%

TEXTILE INDUSTRY

After weaving, normal fabrics are exposed to various liquid substances depending on the color. This actually works much like dyeing a T-shirt at home in the washing machine. The fabric is placed in a tank together with various liquid substances, depending on the color.

Dyeing is one of the most water-intensive steps in fabric production. Conventional dyeing is therefore among the most resource-intensive parts of the entire fabric manufacturing process.

New colors for a polluting industry

An alternative is spin dyeing (dope dyeing), which needs no separate dye bath. Pigments are incorporated directly into the melt-spinning process to produce colored yarns, so the water and chemicals of a dye bath are not needed.

EMISSIONS IN THE DYEING PROCESSES

Water

up to
-90%

up to
- 50%

up to
- 80%

CO2e

Energy

Chemicals

Conventional dyeing process

Dope Dye

Source: Bluesign

Dope dye -
the color of fewer resources

In addition, the color fastness is improved by abrasion and fading during extended exposure to sunlight. In fact, similar to a carrot, the color is evenly distributed throughout the material. With the conventional dyeing method, the color distribution is only on the outside, like a red radish.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about textile dyeing processes

Why is the conventional dye process so harmful to the environment?

Global textile production is responsible for 20% of the water pollution caused by dyeing and finishing products. Dyeing a single kilogram of textiles by conventional processes consumes up to 60 - 150 liters of water. It is the most resource-intensive process of textile production and even releases microfibers.

_{More Information}
_{The impact of textile production and waste on the environment.
European Parliament, 2023 - Kant, R., Textile dyeing industry: An environmental hazard, Natural Science, Vol. 4, p.23}

What are the benefits of dope dyeing?

Because no separate dye bath is needed. In dope dyeing (spin dyeing), pigments are incorporated directly into the melt-spinning process to produce colored yarns, so the water and chemicals of a dye bath are not needed. UV stability is also significantly better, as is color fastness to rubbing.

_{More Information:} _Bluesign_{Academy, 2023}

Why is dope dyeing not used on all textile products?

In 2021, only 3.5% of textiles used dope dye. The reason is that high order minimums of around 10 tons per color and yarn are required. Other brands often use lots of different fabric colors throughout their product range. This makes reaching the minimum order quantity for the dope dye process hard.

That’s why we only use black as the secondary shell material and grey as the inner material. This keeps the number of colors we have to produce to a minimum.

_{More Information:} _{Lucintel's Market Report} _{, Global Dope Dyed Yarn Market Trend}

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Dyeing process

Water use in textile production

New colors for a polluting industry

Dyeing
process