www.mainedye.com
Maine Dye and Textiles is a hands on yarn dyeing company is Saco, Maine. They dye 14 tons of fiber a month! With that much product being dyed, I had to wonder, how sustainable is the business? I was able to talk with Claudia Raessler, the Co-Founder/Business Developer of Maine Dye and Textiles.
Noticing the website feature both natural and synthetic fibers, i felt compelled to ask “Would you want to move away from synthetics, or do you feel the impacts aren’t very harmful?”
She answers, “Synthetics in and of themselves are not “harmful”. It is just a type of raw material – i.e. nylon, polyester, armids, etc. which are different from natural protein fibers. The good and bad of dyeing is in the practices followed, the types of dyes used and their chemistry and water usage. One of the biggest issues is equipment. Old equipment which is much of the U.S. inventory uses lots of water. Our old skein dyeing equipment uses 40 gal. of water for every 1/lb. of yarn dyed. Our new package dyeing machine uses 4-5 gal. for each 1/lb. of yarn. The process is different – but the real change is in the technology of the equipment.”
How great it is to know technology helps reduce water waste!?
Another question I had actually was “Is there a lot of water waste?”
She answered, “The process in a dyehouse is to track the water usage daily, record and report to the city/state where the facility is located. And, yes textile dyeing remains one of the largest negative factors in textile manufacturing from a water consumption perspective.”
Along with this, she provided me with an article on textile dyeing as an environmental hazard to give me a better understand on how dye waste has changed over time.
Next I was wondering, “What dyes do you use?”
She answered, “We use primarily synthetic dyes some of which are certified under the Global Organic Textile Standards – a European organization as made from organic chemistry.”
Next I asked about the main product, the yarn! “Where are your yarns sourced from?”
She answers, “We do not ‘purchase’ the yarns – Our customers source their raw materials from all over depending on the type of yarn, volume and spinning resources in a particular country. They ship raw materials to us, we dye it according to their color requirements and then ship it back to them in a final form – skein, cone, etc. This is a very, very basic explanation of the dyeing process.”
I find this really interesting the yarn comes from the customers themselves!
Wanting to know about the future of Maine Dye and Textiles, I asked “What changes would you like to see in your company?”
She answers, “We started the Company in 2012 first as primarily a “wool” dyehouse offering skein dyeing for all types of natural fibers. In 2016 we moved into dyeing synthetics – nylon & polyester for a different end market than the skein dyeing which is principally B2B arts/crafts, textile artists and businesses selling into these markets. What I would love to change/improve is to beef up our team for customer support in the diverse range of markets we now serve. It is a wide scope in products and types of materials handles and with the implosion of textile mfg. for the last 30 years as textiles are re-shoring – knowledgeable and in-depth expertise has to be re-built.”
My final questions for Claudia was, “What issue would you like me to tackle and research to obtain sustainability for Maine Dye House?”
With my deadline soon approaching, she answered, “Given the lateness of my responses, I am not sure this is relevant. Having said this – anyone focused on textiles mfg. in the U.S. should spend some time learning and understanding the principles of supply chain mfg; how to reduce transportation costs; and find ways to improve collaboration in what is a relatively “dysfunctional” supply chain.”
To me, it appears she’s learned something herself, and wants this advice out there for anyone looking to start a business. Sometimes, your best advice comes from your own experiences. From her own blog post she sent me, she listed a helpful statistic to back this tip.
