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This article discusses a new dyeing method proposed in research published in Nature Communications aimed at reducing the environmental and societal impact of dyeing jeans. The study suggests replacing traditional synthetic indigo dye with Indican, a compound derived from indigo-producing plants that does not require toxic chemicals, reducing the associated impacts by around 90%. While producing Indican would still involve polluting petrochemicals, the benefits come from its use in dyeing textiles.
Can the multi-billion-dollar denim industry keep producing blue jeans in every shape, size and silhouette, while shrinking oversized levels of hazardous pollution? Research published Tuesday suggests a new dye could be a step in the right direction.
Scientists have been searching for ways to make a more sustainable form of indigo, used for centuries to colour textiles, but which in its modern synthetic form needs toxic chemicals, large quantities of water and is linked to substantial carbon dioxide emissions.
But a study published in the journal Nature Communications suggests ditching the classic dye altogether.
Using Indican—a colourless compound also derived form indigo-producing plants—could reduce the environmental and societal impacts associated with dying jeans by around 90 percent because it does not need toxic chemicals, researchers said.
“It’s been known for some years that indigo could be replaced by this other chemical called indican, because you can use it without any strong chemicals,” study author Ditte Hededam Welner, a researcher at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability Enzyme Engineering and Structural Biology, told AFP.
The researchers engineered a variant of an enzyme found in the indigo-producing plant that could produce indican on an industrial scale.
While they said production of indican would still require polluting petrochemicals, so would not be significantly better than producing synthetic indigo, the benefits come when the dye is put to use.
Indican