SAGES is a UK-based startup pioneering petrochemical extractions and biochemical dyeing processes for sustainable colouration.

The London company - founded by Emily Taylor, co-founder and CEO, and Alice Simpson, co-founder and CTO - aims to offer the textile industry a commercial bio-based alternative to synthetic dyes.

The European Parliament has estimated that synthetic dyes are responsible for 20% of global wastewater. Derived from carbon intensive petroleum and coal tar, these dyes rely on non-biodegradable chemicals that are toxic, mutagenic, carcinogenic, and highly polluting. Chemical dyes cause contamination, kill marine life, damage soil, and contaminate the food chain and drinking supply.

With new regulations to eliminate hazardous chemicals imminent, “rapidly scalable solutions are desperately needed”, according to Sages.

To tackle this Sages is turning toward avocado pits, which have been used in home dyeing for many years, but the process, according