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Start-Ups Are Vying to Fix One of Fashion’s Fossil-Fueled Secrets

Transferring dye to fabric is incredibly carbon-intensive. Newer sustainable techniques, including colouring with carbon dioxide, may help.
Start-ups are vying to fix one of fashion’s fossil-fueled secrets.
Start-ups are vying to fix one of fashion’s fossil-fueled secrets. (Shutterstock)
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At a factory in Vietnam, workers load rolls of undyed polyester into a steel container connected to a storage tank that holds carbon dioxide. When pressure in the container is turned up, the CO2 takes on the properties of both gas and liquid, and in turn, develops a superpower: the ability to dissolve the dye. The factory, which uses technology supplied by Dutch start-up DyeCoo Textile Systems, is making clothes coloured by carbon dioxide.

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Further Reading

The Start-Ups Aiming to Detox Dyeing

Turning dresses red and jeans blue is a dirty, resource-intensive process. A number of new technologies offer promising solutions for a lower-impact way forward.

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