It’s all in the jeans! Israeli company aims to reduce textile industry’s pollution by 80 percent

While the textile industry is among the most environmentally conscious in the world, the mass consumerism makes it one of the biggest polluters, only beaten by the food and energy industries. 

On average, a person will use over 350 pairs of jeans in a lifetime, causing tremendous damage to the environment due to the process of producing denim.

Water, energy and chemical consumption are among the biggest challenges facing the industry. Over 11,00 litres of water is used to produce a pair of denim jeans, a technique originating in Italy over 300 years ago.

And despite the industry’s self-regulatory nature, constantly updating its list of banned chemicals, the carbon footprints pose a huge challenge to the environment.

The Israeli company Sonovia is now trying to revolutionise the textile industry by targeting the production of denim jeans, specifically the process of dying the cotton yarns (what denim fabric is produced from) indigo blue. Technically speaking, the technology uses ultrasonic cavitation jet-streams to “impregnate” textiles with desired chemistries.

“The current process of dying denim jeans indigo blue involves between 8-12 baths, requiring huge amounts of resources, both energy wise but also regarding chemicals and the use of water. Our team of researchers found a way to reduce this process by 80%, using ultrasound to dye the jeans,” Sonovia’s CTO Liat Goldhammer told Jewish News.

“Right now, every bath leaves between 1-1,5 tons of chemically polluted liquid. We skip those steps and do it all in one bath,” added Sonovia CEO Igal Zeitun.

Sonovia recently received a two year grant from the EU worth 2,4 million euros, giving the company a boost to finally enter the textile market. It now has its eyes on an Italian production company, one of the last remaining denim manufacturers in Europe.

The company reached out to Sonovia after hearing about its new technology, eyeing the massive potential it has.

“With our technology we are able to create the exact same indigo colour used by all the big fashion brands,” Sonovia’s leading chemist, Dr. Oleg Chashchikin, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, said.

Oleg is one of 35 employees at the Sonovia, with most coming from different fields that the textile industry. This, Goldhammer said, is one of the company’s biggest strengths.

“We have people from all backgrounds and with different experiences. They are thinking out of the box, and aren’t stuck in the conservative way of thinking in the textile industry,” she said.

As for the production, Sonovia is implementing its technology on already existing dying machines on the market. The company’s research and development team includes physicists, chemists, and engineers, working closely together to optimise the technology.

The technology added to the dying machines won’t require any costly oversight by engineers of physicists, but will be a user-friendly model available for employees at any factory.

Convincing the big fashion brands that Sonovia’s new technology can offer both a financial and ecological advantage could put the company in the industry’s big league.

“That’s one of my goals,” says Sonovia’s founder, Shuki Herschovich. “To get the big companies to realise the value we bring to the table, not just financially but more importantly, for the environment.”

Herschovich worked for decades in the textile retail business, seeing the massive impact it had on the environment: “That was my main motivation to establish Sonovia; to make a change.”

“We want to have direct contact with the industry to develop the solution together, so that it fits their needs. Once we are able to commercialise and mass produce the technology, everyone will benefit,” Goldhammer added.

While the textile industry might be one of the big environmental sinners, there’s hope and cooperation among fashion brands and companies trying to reduce the carbon footprints.

“There is a lot of aspiration to change,” Goldhammer said.