Introduction
What do you do with old clothes? Do you throw them in a dumpster or reuse them? Many people are now aware of the harm that clothes can cause to the environment and some no longer buy clothes because they are stylish but consider if they are eco-friendly as well. Reusing old clothes is eco-friendly and people reuse old clothes because it is cheaper and puts the old clothes into new uses. They reused old clothes can be sold and thus people make money. Old clothes need to be in good condition before they can be reused or resold. One way of reusing old clothes is to dye them. Dyeing gives the old clothes a fresh appeal and hence they can be reused comfortably. Reusing old clothes is also friendly to the environment as it helps to reduce the number of toxins released into the environment because in reusing old clothes there is no reprocessing. This helps to save money as well as energy. This paper will endeavor to look at reusing old clothes by using natural dyes.
Current situation in reusing old clothes
More people are embracing the idea of reusing old clothes because they have become aware of their importance. Old clothes are resold as second-hand clothes and because their price is cheap, most people can afford to clothe. Reusing old clothes also helps to maintain the supply chain in the textile industry. This is because it reduces the quantity of fabric to be manufactured to make new clothes. On the other hand, there are people who have not embraced the idea of reusing old clothes and dispose of them once they finish using them. For instance, in America, one person is estimated to dispose of about 67.9 pounds of old clothes. The U.S has a high population of about 296 million people. If each disposed of 67.7 the total would be 20 billion pounds of waste clothes. This waste is then thrown into landfills (Reuse, 2008, Regiving/Regifting, para. 1). Reusing the old clothing items would not only minimize waste but also help the needy if donated to charities.
Natural dyes
Natural dyes are used to add color to fabrics. Natural dyes had been in use for many centuries before chemists started producing synthetic dyes in the mid-nineteenth century to replace the natural dyes because they were expensive. Synthetic dyes are cheaper and thus clothes dyed in them are cheap in price. Thus, natural dyes fell out of favor and synthetic dyes were used in most applications (Brit, 2008, para. 1). However, lately people have discovered the importance of using natural dyes because of the awareness of environmental and ecological issues associated with the use of synthetic dyes. The synthetic dyes are harmful to the environment as well as to workers working in the textile industry. Textile factories use a lot of water during the dyeing process and the contaminated water is expelled into water bodies such as rivers. Due to the high amounts of toxins in synthetic dyes, there is a preference for natural dyes.
Natural dyes generally produce dull shades of color and most people who are accustomed to synthetic dyes find it hard to buy clothes dyed in natural dye because they prefer the dazzling colors produced by synthetic dyes. Therefore, chemicals have been produced to enhance the color as well as the fastness of natural dyes. The addition of inorganic chemicals to enhance natural dyes raises the question of how eco-friendly the natural dyes really are because the inorganic additions are not eco-friendly (Brit, 2008, para.5).
Materials used in dyeing
Using natural dyes to dye old clothes will help to give them a new lease of life for reuse. Clothes made of wool, cotton, nylon, polyester can be dyed using natural dyes because they have affinity to such materials(Leslie, 2008, para. 5). These clothes can be sold as and this will help to keep the supply of clothes steady because there will be no need to produce large quantity of fabric for making new clothes. This will cut down on costs as well as time and people will not have to wait for long periods because old clothes are readily available and ready for use. In addition, reusing old clothes will help to cut down on toxic wastes released into the environment during the manufacturing process. Therefore, the environment will be protected from the harmful materials that change the weather patterns and leads to global warming, which in turn leads to drought-like weather conditions hence a shortage of food.
Availability of natural dyes
Natural dyes are available to textile manufacturers and there are some textile manufactures who have gone eco-friendly. The raw materials for making natural dyes are readily available in stores for instance; one can get indigo, logwood, madder, fustic, and so on. Other raw materials are also easy to find, for example, apple bark, carrot tops, walnuts, blackberries, onion skins, French marigolds and so on (Natural dyeing, 2006, para.4). Other eco-friendly dyes are nanosphere textile finish, biodegradable TPU Laminate that degrades in about four years. In addition, there are also non-toxic dyes that “can be better for…. health and the environment “(Eco-friendly fabrics, 2008, para. 3). Even a nonprofessional can do making natural dyes by just following set procedures(Leslie, 2008, para. 1-4).
Usage of natural dyes
Textile industries want to manufacture clothes while at the same time be socially responsible. The natural dyes are expensive and hence not commercially viable and many textiles manufactures are reluctant to embrace natural dyes. To produce natural dyes requires land to grow dye-producing plants. Some people have a problem with this issue because they feel it would be immoral to use land that is used for food production thus reduce production to grow dye plants. They feel this is harmful to the people.
Adoption of reusing old clothes concept
Textile companies should encourage their customers to reuse old clothes or return them back to the factory. Once the old clothes are returned to the factory, they can be dyed to improve their appeal or turned into other useful items. The companies can also educate people on how to make natural dyes at home to dye their old clothes.
Conclusion
Dyeing clothes using natural dyes is very important because it protects the environment. When old clothes are dyed, they are put into use and this helps to sustain the supply chain through the innovation of reusing old clothes. This ensures the prosperity of textile companies through the reduction of cost and waste.
The textile industries should adopt new ways such as reusing old clothes to make new items. This will reduce their production cost while sustaining raw materials for the companies. The companies should also think about going green to save our planet. They should use eco-friendly materials to minimize the production of toxic waste that finds its way into the environment. People should also stop buying clothes from textile manufacturers with practices that are not eco-friendly.
Reference List
Brit. (2008) Natural dyes: Are they a viable alternative to synthetics? Green Cotton. Web.
Eco-friendly fabrics. Natural-environment.com. (2008). Web.
Leslie, R. (2008). DIY: Make natural non-toxic dye. Green world. Web.
Natural dyeing. (2006). Echoes of a Dream. Web.
Reuse. 2009. Absolute Astronomy. Web.