Organic kitchen waste can potentially yield natural colourants through a scalable, circular process that minimises waste and consumption of resources.
Long description
The use of natural ingredients to colour textiles is ancient knowledge that is ingrained in craft practices even today. Despite being an environment-friendly alternative to synthetic colourants, the use of natural colourants attracts criticism for its consumption of resources, especially land and water, and the pollution of water owing to the use of metallic salts as mordants. Natural dyes are rarely used on an industrial scale, leading to synthetic dyes dominating the industry, even after demands for increased environmental sustainability.
Organic kitchen waste can be a viable source of natural colourants. It consumes less land and water and requires a simple set up for use. By employing natural mordants and ensuring that the solid and liquid residue from the colour extraction process is treated to be composted and reused, respectively, the process can be made circular.
This project aims to develop a comprehensive resource for natural dyeing and a process to extract natural colourants from organic kitchen waste with minimal waste of resources, that can be scaled up for industrial use. This will encourage the use of natural dyes, divert waste and ease the pressure on waste management systems, help create additional value from organic waste, and involve local sourcing, which has a low carbon footprint and is less likely to be impacted by local and global events and natural calamities. This project can be used to generate income for agrarian as well as urban communities and will cater to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals no. 11 and 12.
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