Denim And Indigo Environmental Protection

In recent years, more and more people have begun to advocate the traditional dyeing process. Many Jeans Brands are under the banner of natural indigo. What are the unique features of jeans dyed with natural indigo and the difference between them and synthetic indigo?

　　 Natural Indigo :

In ancient times, indigo was extracted from plants, so it is also called natural indigo or plant indigo. The dye is extracted by soaking and fermentation, and then the indigo mud is precipitated, dried into a block, and then ground into powder. It takes a lot of time and expertise.

There are many plants that can be made into Indigofera tinctoria (Indigofera tinctoria) from India, known as "true" indigo; There are Indigofera suffruticosa from the United States, Indigofera bracteate from West Africa, Isatis tinctorial from Europe and the Middle East, Marsdenia tinctorial from Southeast Asia, and personalized tinctorial from Japan.

　　 Synthetic indigo:

It was not until 1878 that the German chemist Adolf von Baeyer invented synthetic indigo. By 1914, 95% of the natural indigo products had disappeared; Today, almost all blue denim is dyed with synthetic indigo.

　　 Indigo staining

Whether indigo dye is extracted from indigo plant or oil, it will eventually precipitate into indigo mud and then ground into powder.

When dyeing, Indigo powder should be dissolved in water, and then the yarn or fabric should be put into the dye vat. However, Indigo is a kind of urn dye, which is insoluble in water, so it is necessary to use reducing agent (usually sodium dithionite, commonly known as sodium hydrosulfite) for reduction treatment. Indigo can be dissolved in water when it is reduced. If the yarn is immersed in Indigo solution, indigo will be adsorbed on the yarn fiber.

When the indigo fiber is firmly attached to the indigo fiber, it will form an oxidation reaction on the surface of the indigo fiber.

In modern industrial indigo dyeing, indigo dye still stays on the surface of yarn and can't penetrate into the core even though it is dipped for many times, whether natural indigo or synthetic Indigo is used. As you wash and wear, the blue gradually fades away, revealing the undyed white core.

Because natural indigo is commonly used in manual dyeing, many people may mistakenly think that natural indigo will not fade or fade slowly. In fact, the speed of color fading and the strength of color drop contrast of jeans have nothing to do with whether natural indigo is used. It depends on the dyeing technology. In addition, spinning and weaving also have certain influence.

Visually, denim dyed with natural indigo will have more color changes with a unique green color. According to the degree of fermentation and dyeing times, different shades of color can be dyed. On the contrary, the color of denim dyed with synthetic Indigo is more uniform. When it is not mixed with sulfur, it will produce red color. Indigo is rich in color, but more difficult to meet in large-scale production.

Today, consumers are concerned about environmental protection and sustainable development. Compared with synthetic indigo, natural indigo has some limitations in performance, quality consistency and application.

Natural indigo has low dyeing performance and color fastness, so more dyes should be used. Natural indigo requires almost 100 times the amount of synthetic indigo to achieve the same dyeing depth. However, the low fastness of natural indigo also means that more water is needed to clean the weak indigo dye in the rinsing process. Moreover, if natural indigo is dyed with conventional chemical reducing agent, the by-product will affect the natural source of the dye.

Environmental issues:

According to an American brand, an evaluation of the resources needed for the production of a pair of jeans was conducted, and the results were amazing! From cotton field to cotton cloth to washing machine, it takes 3480 liters of water to make a pair of jeans. If you take two liters of water a day for adults, a pair of jeans will consume enough water for an adult for nearly five years!

The wrinkles on the thighs of jeans and the fashion of worn-out styles are all artificially created "worn-out" effects. This "old-fashioned" effect makes a pair of jeans go through repeated dehydration and polishing for 20 times before leaving the factory, and then abrasion, bleaching, and re coloring... In order to wash as clean as possible, a large amount of surfactant will be added to the water.

Hundreds of tons of fashionable jeans are polluted by water! According to rough statistics, 200 tons of water will be polluted for every ton of jeans; The sewage contains about 2500 chemicals.

　　 Breaking through tradition, environmental protection and health

Zeng Ye Textile Science and technology studio launched a new type of environmental protection denim fabric, abandoned the traditional dyeing method of denim, innovated and developed a new biological coloration process over-dye. It can replace traditional dyeing with unique water-free dyeing and coating, and use pure indigo solution to dye with water-free process, and develop a new generation of environmental protection denim fabrics: {bionic denim} series, It supports pure indigo original solution coloring, does not add other reducing agents, alkali and other harmful chemicals, but also supports edible pigment coloring, so as to produce a variety of unique color cattle.

The color of denim and indigo is not limited to traditional denim and indigo. The product is more abundant, the style is more novel! Combined with unique 0ver dye technology, it can be washed by simple water without adding various harmful chemicals. The washing process is less than half an hour, and the residual liquid can be discharged, which greatly improves the production efficiency and reduces environmental pollution.

Bionic pure indigo denim is far superior to traditional denim in environmental protection, water saving, production efficiency, cost and so on. It is a new generation of innovative environmental protection products.

Zengye textile technology studio has been developing green and recycled textiles for more than ten years Low carbon production, antibacterial health as the main purpose, with the new technology, energy saving and water saving, less chemicals added, clean production, no secondary pollution, the product has antibacterial protection function, each link is carefully designed, so that the regeneration of the second life products can be guaranteed with high quality.