Sustainability & Circular Economy
From water collection to woodland filtration and worm compositing, learn how the circular economy of Apple Oak Fibre Works goes green for all our good!
Initial Stages
It was quite clear to us from the very beginning, that our entire system had to be as ecological and as sustainable as possible. Dye Houses are anything but and are well known for pollution and high water usage.
So what were our goals?
- No Mains Water
- Avoid Water Pollution
- Limit Waste & Create a wormery
- Growing our own dye plants
- Seed production
- Green Energy
- Future Outlook
No Mains Water
Our studio is situated near an industrial estate, surrounded by acres of abandoned glass houses, old nurseries and woodland. Our Studio can be supplied by River Water, but has no direct connection to Mains Supply.
Natural Dyeing works best with Rainwater and don't we have an abundance of it here in Ireland! The PH is generally stable and it is for free. The glasshouses turned out to be perfect for Rainwater Collection. We currently have the capacity to collect 4000L of Rainwater.
Avoid Water Pollution
We only use none toxic mordants, low temperatures and all our dye and drinking water needs are met by using filtered collected rainwater, filtered twice for drinking, of course. Nonetheless we still needed to filter the dye water and pumping anything into a nearby river, ground water and even a septic tank, wasn't an option.
Our first idea was to make a very wide and shallow pond in one of the glass houses, filtered by straw bales and aquatic plants. This idea, as lovely as it sounded, was quickly replaced by more realistic and strategic plans. Most weeks, we put over 3000L of water through the system - the scale of the glasshouse pond would have had to be enormous.
It took us over a year and several engineers to come up with a working system which was finally solved by Ollan Herr from Herr Ltd.
The dye water, once used, is pumped through 4 settlement tanks, several planted up gravel and sand filters and 2 further settlement tanks, before being drip fed into an evergreen woodland, acting as the final and last biological filter in the chain by sucking the water up and releasing it back into the air as oxygen.
Limiting Waste & the Wormery
Our Wormery is a big part of our business and completes our circularity. By composting our used dye plant matter, we are using the compost again for growing our dye plants.
It not only composts used dye matter, but also excess cardboard & food waste. It takes about 6 months for one of our big worm bins to be ready for emptying. The compost is full of nutrients and can be used for planting straight away. Another great by product is a so called 'worm juice'. A lot of liquid is created during the composting stages and it does wonders to your flowers and our dye plants!
All our packaging is either made from vegetable starch or recycled paper and are fully compostable and recyclable. This includes all our labels and even our cellar tape! (And we use a staple-less Stapler!)
Growing our own dye plants
In 2024 we finally made the big step of adding organic dye plant production and seed saving to our business. We started with important plant trials, focusing on the most important dye plants like Woad, Persicaria, Madder and Weld. More about the trials are on the blog and in the Natural Dyers and Growers Academy.
These were our first field trials and we have been kindly offered a piece of land for rent, to start a bigger production of organic dye plants & seeds in 2025.
Seed production
Tristan is a trained organic & biodynamic gardener with a focus on seed saving. Naturally, we couldn't just grow the plants, but also need to ave our own seeds. This is an important aspect of a garden's life cycle, often overlooked. The seeds will not only supply ourselves, but will also be available for sale and used for education.
Green Energy
We do not work with higher temperatures than 80 degrees Celsius. Dyes are extracted for an hour and not kept on heat. Our dye Vat and dye baths are insulated with very thick insulation, keeping heat for 24h.
Currently, the workshop has no heating or hot water system. Our Vat is heated by oil unfortunately, but we invested our last funds into the best oil burner with the highest efficiency rate of 97%.
Future Outlook
We are hoping that in the near future, we can take care of this final step by moving AppleOak to its own premises. Our hands are bound by renting our workshop and expanding in the right way is difficult.
We are envisioning a dye house & education centre with a focus on Natural Dyeing, Organic dye crop production and Seed saving; using our current water system and continued use of our waste water & waste compost cycle and only using green energy, of course.
If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading!
