Published by Vanessa Brunner under Clothing

When people think of waste in the fashion industry, the first things that come to mind are usually fabric, cotton, plastic, or even paper. Naturally, the actual products produced by this industry are what we tend to associate with waste—and what is often forgotten about is the actual process.

Water waste is a huge problem in clothing manufacturing and production. It takes an average of 15 to 25 gallons of water to traditionally dye a single cotton t-shirt. The coloring of a garment like this can consume up to 250 times its weight in water. And, more often than not, this water is taken from sources with severe water stress, such as Mexico, China, and India.  To top it all off, this water is severely polluted before flowing back to local water supplies.

From AirDye's general information packet

(For more information on textile water pollution, click here and here)

AirDye has found an incredibly simple solution to this problem: Remove the water from the dying process.

AirDye uses no water at the point of coloration, not only eliminating water waste, but reducing energy consumption in general by 70%. If AirDye was used by all major global clothing manufacturers, it would save trillions of gallons of water, and reduce water pollution by 91%.

Besides saving massive amounts of energy and water, AirDye has benefits for the manufacturers as well: Both sides of the fabric can be dyed at the same time, and have completely different designs. Also, Workout gear and other athletic clothing retains 100% of its ability to wick moisture and move effortlessly, even when completely dyed. No other decorating process has been able to achieve this (thus the completely solid colors of most workout clothing).

With AirDye, the dye is in the clothing—it is a part of each fiber of the fabric. This means you can wash AirDyed fabric in any temperature, using any soap or bleach.

(See the video below. It  blew my mind.)

This makes clothes dyed with AirDye great for places like hospitals, where sterile clothing is vital.

If it sounds like an answer to our prayers—you’re right! And a lot of retailers have signed on. The only question I really have is why other major manufacturers haven’t. Nothing but good things can come out of this.

For a list of AirDye licensed resellers, click here