Dumpster Dyes: Tie-dying with Avocado Pits

Everyone loves tie-dye and I think this past year during the pandemic a lot of folks tried it out themselves. I guess I was a little late to the game but once I thought about trying it out myself I figured I should try it on my Earth Ally shirts. For those who are not familiar, I started the Earth Ally Project over a year ago after I created a logo for the phrase Earth Ally, which I coined and is inspired by climate activists. I thought it would be cool to see the logo on shirts and hats but I didn’t want to contribute to the fast fashion industry and the traditional manufacturing process, expending energy and resources that contribute to human caused climate change. That would go against the whole mission of the project. So I got the idea to use shirts already produced and found at secondhand stores, essentially saving them from the landfill and giving them new life. I call it an ecological intentional repurposing project. I hand pressed my logo on the shirts and have them for sale on my Earth Ally page. But back to tie-dying. I figured those Earth Ally shirts would be the perfect practice for my tie-dying experiment.

Then after a quick dive into tie-dying videos I realized how chemicaly intensive it is and wanted to go a more natural route. I started searching videos using natural dyes and that’s when I found several videos and articles about plant dyes. I watched videos tie-dying with turmeric, avocado pits, blueberries, etc. and I knew that was the way I wanted to go. So after saving my avocado pits in the freezer, and collecting some from the dumpster I was ready to experiment. Yes, I got some from the dumpster while dumpster diving at local grocery stores. I’ve been doing that on and off for the past 6 years and that’s a whole spiel in and of itself. If you’re initially put off by that I recommend you read an article I wrote about it years ago titled “Dumpster Diving: Dispelling the Dirty Myth” on Medium. I also recently uploaded a dumpster diving collage video on my YouTube channel. The avocados in the dumpster are usually too smashed to actually be eaten but I remembered that I just needed the pits for this experiment so I took some just for the pits.

I ended up doing two separate batches and the first batch turned out better. Check out my YouTube video documenting the process.

Instructions

Fill a pot 1/2 or 2/3 of water. Add 5+ avocado pits. (I did 5 the first time and 6 the second time). Bring to a boil. Then turn to low for 45 minutes. During that time I soaked my shirts (100% cotton) in warm water. Spiral the shirts and add rubber bands. After 45 minutes turn the heat off and scoop out pits (can be composted). Add shirts and leave for 24 hours. Since I used 4 shirts I didn’t have much room in the pot so I imagine if you used only one shirt you could use less water and the color should be darker. The next day take the shirts out, take rubber bands off, and rinse the shirt. I then hung the shirts to dry and then put them in the dryer to help set the color.

The result: a subtle rose pink color