LITAC celebrates Sustainable Dyeing Innovation with SwitchDye
At Leeds Institute of Textiles and Colour (LITAC), we are thrilled to celebrate an inspiring milestone: the University of Leeds spin-out SwitchDye has unveiled a pioneering dyeing technology that uses 90% fewer chemicals and 40% less water when dyeing polyester, the world’s most widely used fibre.
Born from world-class research facilities here at Leeds and supported by LITAC, this innovation shows what’s possible when chemistry, design, and sustainability expertise unite. By making it easier to insert and remove dye from polyester, SwitchDye not only reduces harmful chemicals and wastewater pollution, but it also opens the door to true circularity in synthetics, making future recycling significantly easier.
This collaboration between Dr Nathaniel Crompton, Dr Harrison Oates, Professor Richard Blackburn and Professor Chris Rayner demonstrates the power of multidisciplinary research, industry partnerships and visionary thinking in shaping a cleaner future for fashion and textiles.
We are incredibly proud to have supported this journey by way of two LITAC funded development projects, which sits alongside support provided by The Clothworkers’ Foundation, The Clothworkers’ Company, UKRI EPSRC and many others.
The LITAC team is thrilled to see SwitchDye progress toward industrial scale-up and investment. This is innovation with global potential and a significant step toward a more sustainable textile future.
You can read more about SwitchDye’s impressive journey in this dedicated University of Leeds feature.