Dyes and dyeing processes for natural textiles and their key sustainability issues

Considering the environmental impact, the dyeing industry is one of the most notorious industries. The dyeing process involves the transfer of dye to the finished textile to add permanent and long-lasting colour. For decades, various dyeing techniques for natural fibres have been developed to provide the desired shades and colour fastness to the fabric. The conventional dyeing methods of natural fibres consume a huge amount of water during the dyeing processes and finishing operation, require lots of energy and produce an enormous amount of chemicals as wastage, which are discharged into the water bodies along with unfixed dyes as industrial effluent, thus causing severe water pollution. Thus there are several environmental and sustainable issues related to the dyeing industry, which must be addressed immediately. In this chapter, we will shed light on such issues and will discuss recent developments in this context.