UK biotech company Colorifix found a way to produce dyes with a fraction of the water used in conventional methods and without any toxic chemicals, Bloomberg reports. Colorifix’s method cuts down 81% in water use and 41% on natural gas, according to an environmental impact analysis prepared for the company last year. The fast fashion industry is responsible for one-fifth of industrial water pollution globally due to its damaging dyeing and treatment processes, according to a report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

How do they do it? Colorifix digitally sources color pigments from the DNA sequence of natural materials — such as feathers, insects and plants — and engineers bacteria to produce the same color, according to Bloomberg. The bacteria is then fed water, sugar, yeast, and plant byproducts to ferment it. Within a couple of days the bacteria generates a large volume of dye liquor, and is already proposed for commercial applications.

The fashion industry is interested: H&M is exploring the potential of using Colorifix’s technology, Bloomberg reports, and Pangaia and Stella McCartney previously produced pieces using Colorifix dye. The company also supplies dye houses in Bosnia, Italy, and Portugal, and is soon expanding into Turkey, India, and Sri Lanka.

The region is a manufacturing powerhouse for the fast-fashion industry: In a rundown of the region’s textile manufacturing capacity, Fashion Trust Arabia identified Jordan, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Syria, UAE, Egypt, and Tunisia as having some of the world’s largest textile hubs. The UAE has the region's largest textile factory making it a crucial textile hub in the world, and Egypt has over 7k garment and textile factories — 50% to 80% of which is exported to the US, and the rest to EU and Arab markets.

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