Revolutionising Color Creation: Pioneering an End-to-End Manufacturing Process for Food Waste derived Natural Dyes

纺织业是世界上污染第二严重的行业。合成染料污染是无声的罪魁祸首，占该行业总排放量的80%[Lellis-2019]。全球纺织染料市场为91亿GB(2022年)，其中98.5%是合成染料。这些染料用于服装、配饰、家具和床上用品等各种产品。它们来自煤焦油或石油中间体，[莫多尔，2023]本质上是不可持续的，对环境和人类健康造成严重破坏。化学染料废水倾倒到溪流中造成污染，杀死水生生物，破坏土壤，污染食物链/饮用水供应。工人和当地居民会经历膀胱癌、不孕不育、神经系统疾病和皮疹等诸多副作用[Khan，Malik，2018]。最近的研究表明，佩戴者可能会经历皮肤灼伤、哮喘、自身免疫性疾病以及具有致癌、致突变和再生殖毒性的累积毒性。然而，该行业仍依赖合成染料。这是因为替代品还无法达到合成染料的**亮度**、**寿命**和**稠度**的水平。目前的替代品是现有的传统天然染料，由于它们使用农田而**不一致**和**昂贵**，藻类染料**缺乏抗紫外线**和**有限的调色板**，以及微生物染料**复杂地整合**和**淡的颜色**。这些替代品已经不能满足工业的需要，而且对天然的、可生物降解的、和商业上可行的染料。**鼠尾草染料**鼠尾草创造**天然的、可生物降解的、无污染的**和**来自食物垃圾的**无毒**染料**。我们利用英国的食物垃圾流，如洋葱皮、鳄梨核和红色卷心菜来提取可用于给纹理着色的鲜艳的染料。该项目将看到鼠尾草面临最大的障碍，将实验室测试的提取/过滤方法结合到端到端的过程中，从实验室规模的100克/天扩展到商业规模的5公斤/天。

The textiles industry is the second most polluting in the world. Synthetic dye pollution is the silent culprit accounting for 80% of the industry's total emissions \[Lellis-2019\].The global market for textile-dyes is £9.1billion (2022) with 98.5% of dyes being synthetic. These dyes are used in everything including clothing, accessories, furniture and bedding. They are derived from either coal-tar or petroleum-based intermediates \[Modor, 2023\] are inherently unsustainable, and wreak havoc on the environment and human health.Chemical dye effluent is dumped into waterstreams causing contamination, killing aquatic biota, damaging soil, and contaminating the food chain/drinking supply. Workers and local populations experience effects such as bladder-cancer, infertility, nervous-system disorders and rashes amongst many other side effects \[Khan,Malik,2018\]. Recent research shows wearers can experience skin-burns, asthma, auto-immune diseases and cumulative-toxicity with carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic effects\[Wicker,2023\].The industry however continues to rely on synthetic-dyes. This is attributable to the fact that alternatives have not been able to achieve the levels of **brightness**, **longevity** and **consistency** as synthetic-dyes.Current alternatives are existing traditional natural dyes which are **inconsistent** and **expensive** due to their use of farmland, algae dyes, which **lack UV resistance** and have a **limited colour palette**, and microbial dyes, which are **complicated to integrate** and **pale in colour**.These alternatives have not been able to satisfy industry needs and there is a desperate requirement for natural, biodegradable, and commercially-viable dyes.**SAGES DYES**SAGES create **natural, biodegradable, non-polluting** and **non-toxic** dyes **derived from food-waste**. We utilise UK food-waste streams such as onions skins, avocado pits, and red cabbages to extract vibrant dyes which can be used to colour textiles.This project will see SAGES face its largest hurdle in combining lab-tested extraction/filtration methods into an end-to-end process, scaling from 100g/day lab-scale batches to commercial-scale quantities of 5kg/day.