Archroma, a global color and specialty chemicals company brings century-old experience in dyes and chemicals to the world by combining the old and the new in a range of biosynthetic dyes for cotton and cellulose based fabrics – Earthcolors, derived from almond shells, saw palmetto, rosemary leaves, and other natural products.

Earthcolors make use of agriculture waste products that can be used to provide rich red, brown and green colours to denim and casual wear, the company reports.

According to Alan Cunningham, Head of Textiles Dyes Marketing at Archroma, people should have the possibility to choose the fashion option with the least environmental impact and to be safe in the knowledge that there is substance behind what is claimed on the label. With Earthcolors, Archroma allow just that. Their aim is to give consumers a choice.

Archroma is providing brand owners with a possibility of transparency along the complete supply chain for Earthcolors. The company will also put all the information about individual batches of colour on hang tags to be attached to each item of clothing.

Each hang tag incorporates a chip with all the information on it, which can be accessed by the prospective buyer in the shop using Near Field Communications (NFC) technology incorporated winto their phone. Archroma believes that this is the first time that NFC is being used in this way.

NFC is a relative of RFID, or Radio Frequency Identification, which many retailers already use for tracking products. But NFC is more sophisticated and more consumer friendly. Archroma is hoping that it will provide shoppers with a more involved buying experience.

The chip can contain information such as the mill, which dyed the fabric and where the garment was laundered, as well as the source of bio-based raw material.

The new dyes, which Archroma describes as biosynthetic sulfur dyes, have been four years in the making. This new development is a step-change in dyes manufacturing and coloration technology.

To make Earthcolors, Archroma transforms biomass from waste products of the agriculture and herbal sectors in a patent-pending process.

The new range is produced near Barcelona, Spain, with all raw materials sourced from within a radius of 500 km. It does not require any additional piece of land to grow the raw material for these dyes, so there is no competition for arable land.

Archroma is headquartered in Reinach near Basel, Switzerland, and operates with approximately 3000 employees over 35 countries.