With the Earth population reaching 8 billion in November 2022, the need to address the issue of textile waste becomes more critical. According to earth.org, 92 million tons of textile waste is produced every year, a number that is expected to soar to 134 million tons by the end of the decade.

Around 85% of all textiles discarded in the US are said to end up in landfills, leading to land and water pollution impacting first and foremost local communities. Archroma, a company which creates colours for fashion, decided to look at the issue creatively - what if it could create colours from waste fashion?

Archroma had already developed a way to turn waste from the herbal and food industry into its range of EarthColors featured by brands such as G-Star, Patagonia, Esprit, Tom Taylor, Pangaia, UGG, and Primark, and is now introducing another ground-breaking innovation in its FiberColors technology.

With FiberColors, Archroma upcycles textile waste into gorgeous colours, which are synthesised from a minimum content of 50% waste-based raw material.

Archroma’s R&D experts have developed a way to use cotton and/or polyamide and their blends (with a >95% purity) to substitute the major part of the petroleum-based raw material usually used to make dyestuff.

The resulting FiberColors range, which is patent-pending and therefore exclusive to Archroma, includes five dyes covering a palette of timeless shades: Diresul Fiber-Teak (brown shades), Diresul Fiber-Ochre (olive shades), Diresul Fiber-Maroon (Bordeaux shades), Diresul Fiber-Slate (blue grey shades) and Diresul Fiber-Graphite (dark grey shades).

The dyes are especially suited for cellulose fibres such as cotton, viscose, linen and kapok, and can be used in continuous, exhaust, denim and garment dyeing and printing processes.

With this, a brand can turn its own pre- and post-consumer textile waste into its own beautiful colours, and create a complete collection including t-shirts, chinos, sweatshirts, hoodies, polo shirts, and home textiles, Archroma says. FiberColors are ideal for forward-thinking companies who want to help find a solution to textile landfills, and at the same time give value to waste including articles collected in their take-back schemes that cannot be reused, the company adds.

Heike van de Kerkhof, Chief Executive Officer of Archroma, comments: “After creating colours from food and herbal waste with EarthColors, we are taking a step further in circular manufacturing with FiberColors, addressing the huge textile and fashion waste global issue. This is how we make our purpose to lead our industry towards a more sustainable future for our customers and markets, a reality. Because it’s our nature.”

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