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 WHY HERBAL DYEING WITH ORGANIC TEXTILE?
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The herbal dyeing process is one step ahead of organic textile. The core concept of growing organic cotton is to eliminate the impact of harmful chemicals and pesticides which are used in course of growing it. But does the story of using harmful and carcinogenic chemicals stop here? Certainly NOT. And this is the point from where AURA’s story begins. Our Mission is to eliminate the entire conventional system from the said harmful impacts right from growing cotton to getting the end product in most natural and organic way.
During course of our research we came to know many facts of chemical dyeing and the major areas of concern and problems for people with chemical sensitivities purchasing clothing what we found was the dyes and garment finishing.
Garment finishes for wrinkle-free, stain resistant, flame retardant, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, anti-static and odor-resistant, permanent-press, non-shrink, softening agents and the other easy care treatments that are applied to new clothing can be especially harmful for people with chemical sensitivities which are basically all of us – it is just the degree of sensitivity that varies.
Apart from this, herbal dyed textiles can also help in preventing the diseases which otherwise are common with conventional clothing. Dyes and garment finishes are known to result in problems like skin rashes, headache, trouble concentrating, nausea, diarrhea, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, dizziness, difficulty breathing, irregular heart beat and seizures. Symptoms in children include red cheeks and ears, dark circles under the eyes, hyperactivity and behavior or learning problems.
In fact during the initial stage of our research we visited some of the chemical dyeing plant and it was almost next to impossible for us to breath over there. So we were just wondering that under what circumstances the workforce/labors would be working there when we could not manage to stand even for a short while and how this kind of unhygienic and toxic environment would be hazardous & lead to various health related issues of those labors.
In fact in the developing countries where industry norms are not followed strictly we may find these kinds of industries releasing their residues and waste without treating them either directly in deep dug pits in the land or directly in the rivers. And the villagers who depend on river water as their only source become victims of these harmful chemicals and land up with many health related problems.
Clothing comes into prolonged contact with your skin, toxic chemicals are absorbed through your skin and skin pores are opened to permit perspiration. Once absorbed by humans, heavy metals tend to accumulate in the liver, kidney, bones, heart and brain. The effects on health can be significant when high levels of accumulation are reached. The effect is particularly serious in children due to effects on growth and their relatively low body mass.
Toxic chemicals from dyes also create severe environmental havoc in form of air, water & soil pollution. Large amounts of water are used to flush conventional synthetic dyes from garments and then this waste water must be treated to remove the heavy metals and other toxic chemicals before it can be returned to water systems, sewers and rivers. And the way GLOBAL WARMING is mounting, where textile industry is contributing a lot in terms of GREEN HOUSE GASES and before it creates havoc we need to generate awareness and take rigid and thoughtful steps against those things which are fueling such issues.
So all of the above things made us to think towards the concept called organic and herbal textile, we cannot separate these two concepts because they are incomplete without each other. They both are complementing. So when we say 100% organic or 100% natural it has to be processed in this way or else there is no meaning of using organic cotton.
Some facts of Chemical Processing
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Use of different 8000 chemicals in various stages in chemical dyeing. |
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As high as 40 times the weight of the fabric, water is required to process the same. |
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Most of the so called Eco-friendly dyeing or LOW impact dyeing available on Organic as well as conventional cotton is still being dyed using huge amount of chemicals and Dyes but in permissible limits. Thus they may be LOW impact but certainly not NO impact. |
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The Eco cycle or ORGANIC Textiles can only end with True Organic processing where the waste is reused for e.g. in form of manure. |
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