Natural Dyes as a tool for Education

5 min readApr 21, 2020

Educational institutions have a lot of potential for exploring new methods of teaching, the college campus is a great resource to make studies more interactive.

Educating students about Sustainability is the need of the hour. Here’s looking into NIFT Delhi Campus as a resource for educating students about Natural Dyeing trough innovative practices.

Natural dyes are derived from plants, animals, fruits, insects, minerals and other natural resources. That’s why natural dyes are usually perceived as harmless and safe for the environment.

Synthetic dyes

Synthetic Dyes became popular because of its lasting color pay-off and wide range of color choices.However, synthetic dyes have harmful effects on the environment and human beings.First off, synthetic dyes are made up of chemical compounds that can be harmful to humans, especially those who work in their production. Some of the chemicals found in synthetic dyes are mercury, lead, chromium, copper, sodium chloride, toluene, and benzene. Exposure to large doses of these substances can be toxic and can have severe effects in the human body.Water pollution can also result from manufacturing synthetic dyes when untreated dye effluent is dumped directly on bodies of water.

Synthetic Dye’s impact on the Environment

Approximately 10–15% dyes are released into the environment during the dyeing process making the effluent highly colored and aesthetically unpleasant.

The dying process discharges many chemicals through the polluted water and chemicals, which results in the death of aquatic life, the ruining of soils and poisoning of drinking water. The environmental impact of the coloring process is significant and the laws that are in place, have been seen to be not well enforced.

During the dyeing process an average t-shirt will use 16–20 liters of water, which means that on average, the global textile industry discharges 40,000–50,000 tons of dye into the water system. A great environmental concern with dyes is the absorption and reflection of sunlight entering the water. Light absorption diminishes photosynthetic activity of algae and seriously influences the food chain as the algae are the base of the food chain, thus affecting every organism above it.

Mordants used in Natural Dyeing

Natural dyes will not adhere to natural fibers without the use of a mordant or fixative. Protein fibers like silk and wool absolutely need a plant extract (dye) and a mineral mordant. Some mordants are poisonous to work with, the use of Copper, Iron, Tin and Chrome mordants has decreased over recent years as dyers have become more environmentally aware and health conscious.

Alum

The specific compound is hydrated potassium aluminium sulfate.Alum is one of the most popular mordants used in natural dyeing, as you can dye and mordant all at the same time.Alum is also regarded as the safest of the common mordants.

Iron

Iron (or Ferrous Sulfate) tends to darken the dye on your fiber or yarn. Old nails boiled in water will also create an effective and free iron mordant.

Copper

Copper sulfate can be used as a mordant to dye clothes,Copper is a good mordant for dyeing greens.

Tin

As a mordant, tin has a tendency to be very harsh on the wool or yarn and can make it quite brittle.However, when used correctly, tin leaves a clear and very fast color.

Chrome

The advantage of using chrome is that it leaves the wool soft to the touch, whereas the other mordants can be quite harsh leaving your wool slightly crunchy.Chrome is not recommended to use these days, as it has been found to be proven carcinogen.