Agro-waste could offer route to cleaner dyes – study

SINGAPORE – A new APEC study has urged textile firms across the region to tap agro‑industrial waste as a scalable source of natural dyes and help reduce the industry’s reliance on synthetics.

The research, titled ‘Agro-industrial waste as a resource for sustainable textile dyeing: a circular economy perspective’, argues that residues such as onion skins, avocado seeds, beetroot and mango skins can deliver commercially relevant colour with “reasonable fastness” while helping micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) cut pollution and open up new value chains.​