Today, the global community is appreciating green technologies in the application of green products in textiles. The aim of the current study is to use a sustainable heating technique for the isolation of colorant from plant sources and to use eco-friendly anchors to improve the fastness of dyed fabrics with new shades. The current study used microwave radiation to isolate natural colorants from saffron (Crocus sativus) and safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) petals for polyamide (nylon) fabric dyeing. For this purpose, acidic extract and fabric were exposed to MW treatment for up to 6 min and employed at various conditions. To make the dyeing process sustainable, bio-mordants have been employed and compared with synthetic mordants. It has been found that 6 min is the optimal radiation time for the isolation of colorant to get good results onto irradiated polyamide (nylon) fabric when employed at 65 °C for 45 min containing 1 g/100 mL of table salt for saffron and 3 g/100 mL of table salt for safflower dyeing. For improving color strength and giving an acceptable rating of fastness, 7% of turmeric as a pre-bio mordant and 7% pomegranate as a post-mordant has given high results using saffron extract. Similarly, with safflower extract, 5% of turmeric as a pre-mordant and 5% of turmeric extracts as a post-mordant have given high results as compared to chemical mordants used. It is concluded that microwave treatment has a high potential for investigating the coloring efficacy of crocin-containing saffron petals and safflower petals as carthamin as a yellow natural dye for bio-mordanted polyamide fabrics. It is recommended that such tools for the isolation of colorant from new dye-producing plants should be used, whereas green mordants should be used to develop new colorfast shades to make process more green and sustainable.

Sustainable chemistry is a relatively new field that aims to achieve both economic and environmental goals simultaneously. This paper discusses a cleaner and more sustainable method for dyeing cotton fabric using Direct Violet 09 and Reactive Violet 05 dye. It has been noticed that good color characteristics were obtained when cotton fabric was dyed with 35 mL of microwave-treated Reactive Violet 05 dye solution of 7 pH and 2 g Aluminum sulfate for 30 min at 60 °C. When dyeing cotton fabric with Direct Violet 09 dye, it has been observed that cotton fabric, when microwave treated for 6 min and dyed at 80 °C for 50 min using 35 mL of non-treated dye solution of 7 pH with 2 g Potassium sulfate, produces good results. The colorfastness of the dyed fabrics using ISO standards was also evaluated. Overall, it was found that the use of microwave radiation improves the sustainability of the dyeing process.

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the differences and similarities of organic cotton clothing (OCC) purchase behaviors of the consumers who lie at the top and the bottom of the apparel supply chain. The influences of consumers’ sustainability knowledge and social norms on consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions were examined to understand within the framework of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). Sample data were collected from the United States and Bangladesh and, finally, 136 useable responses were used for the data analysis. Among the useable responses, 85 samples were from the US (containing 91.76% female participants and 4.71% male participants) and 51 responses were from the Bangladesh sample (containing 7.84% female participants and 88.24% male participants). A structural equation model was conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings showed that for US consumers, sustainability knowledge was a powerful predictor of positive attitudes towards OCC, while for Bangladeshi consumers, it was not. In the context of social norms, Bangladeshi consumers demonstrated a strong positive attitudes formation whereas American consumers were found to display less strong relationships. OCC marketers and retailers should concentrate on educating consumers about the real benefits of organic cotton consumption by disseminating proper information about organic cotton fiber and its processing.