How Researchers Hack Bacteria to Dye Blue Jeans

Most of us find it difficult to see ourselves opening our closet and without finding a pair of these blue jeans. The slender hipster variety, boot cuts, dad jeans, and no judgment are available. The indigo dye in the blue part of our jeans is one thing they all have in common. The color we use today is quite soiled. This one procedure has an impact since we produce a lot of pants, but some people are reimagining the technique for producing indigo dye. So that our jeans will be a little bit cleaner in the future.

Why is indigo used?

Jeans are so famous that everyone has them in their closet. As a result, they make an excellent case study. It gets estimated that billions of pairs of jeans get produced each year. Over 70,000 tons of indigo are also manufactured to give them that characteristic blue tint. And indigo is essential to that traditional faded look. That's what makes jeans so amazing; when you wear them, stuff peels off, and you have this lovely fading.

Indigo dye: natural vs. synthetic

There are two types of indigo dye that might cause that fade: natural and synthetic. For thousands of years, humans have used natural products derived from Indigofera plants. But, in 1897, German chemists produced synthetic indigo dye for mass manufacture. Almost all genes are now coloured with synthetic indigo dye. It is equal to plant-based indigo dye. So the ultimate result is the same, but the manufacturing method necessitates a nasty mix of fossil fuels and poisonous ingredients such as formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, aniline, and sodium amide.

Problems of using synthetic indigo dye

Many Chemicals Gets Used

As a result, many different chemicals get used in the dying process. There is the indigo dye itself, but there are also ingredients that allow the indigo to dissolve in water. Soda ash and sodium hydrosulfite, both of which, according to their dying package, might be dangerous if applied in a wrong manner. On a larger scale, these chemicals can be hazardous to workers in textile plants. Particularly if the factory is not up to standard or they do not have access to PPE. Respiratory disorders, skin problems, and even some cancer are peculiar to chemical exposure in textile workers. But, not all jeans gets created equal. Contaminants such as formaldehyde and aniline may be present in some finished products.

Dye's environmental impact

Although this is only a five-gallon container, each year up to 280,000 tons of textile dyes end up in waste water. And not all get disposed of in the right manner. Particularly in regions where environmental regulations are lacking or the sector gets uncontrolled. If you go to any manufacturing cities that produce these textile products. You will notice that the rivers are dark from the effluent flowing out of these plants. This wastewater can contaminate aquatic environments, harm drinking water, and even end up in surrounding food crops. And I know that many denim laundries and denim brands are hoping for some sort of innovation that will allow them to shift away from synthetic indigo. But it's not all bad news. There are many attempts underway to improve the entire process, from water savings to safer finishing procedures. And one brand is focusing on the color blue, which we all adore.

How Huue makes biosynthetic indigo dye from microbes

So, this is a typical molecular biology lab. This is where we do the majority of our DNA cutting and pasting to get it into our microbial host. Huue is a startup that produces indigo dye from sugar rather than fossil fuels. Beginning with an indigo plant, they sequence the DNA for indigo chemicals.

This genetic code is then encoded into microorganisms, which generate the identical indigo molecules. And you can see that some of them produce a lot of dark blue hue, while others produce far less. Whichever strains are performing best gets placed in a shaker flask to multiply. Those cultures multiply until they are large enough to get placed in a bioreactor.

In each of these reactors, we have either a separate strain of our microorganism. Or the same strain with different medium characteristics or growth circumstances. We can control things like how fast they stir and how much oxygen gets into the broth. The dyes get checked and purified before to testing.

So, after the bacteria have grown and created the indigo dye, it is still a mixture of bacteria, dye, and the media that it got cultivated in. We focus on purifying the dye and ensuring that the final dye product meets the expectations of synthetic indigo users.

Huue is still in the research and development stage. It is also not the only team attempting to fix this issue. DyStar, a leading producer of synthetic indigo, has improved the safety and cleanliness of its die.

Others have developed indigo that is devoid of certain pollutants such as aniline. Huue is beginning with indigo, but their goals are far higher.

Regulation and voluntary efforts

Of course, companies and regulators have a role to play too. And there are voluntary efforts to end hazardous chemicals from apparel manufacturing. There's also new legislation on the table that aims to make the fashion supply chain more transparent. To turn this industry around, we need to have it regulated.

With the oil and gas industry, we don't talk about innovation. We talk about the need for regulation. Jeans can be slow fashion. But none of this means you need to go out and buy the cleanest, most sustainable pair of jeans out there. I love denim. It's a wonderful product.

Slow fashion is possible. If you value it, you can get a pair of jeans that you will be able to wear for the following ten years. I'm crossing my fingers that fashion doesn't move quite fast.

Conclusion

So, while we wait for this denim technology revolution. We can always buy less jeans, wear the jeans we already own less, wash them less, and donate them when we're done with them.