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

纺织业是世界上第二大污染行业。合成染料污染是占该行业总排放量80%的无声罪魁祸首\[Lellis-2019\]。全球纺织染料市场规模为91亿英镑（2022年），其中98.5%的染料为合成染料。这些染料被用于所有东西，包括服装、配饰、家具和床上用品。它们源自煤焦油或石油基中间体\[Modor，2023\]本质上是不可持续的，并对环境和人类健康造成严重破坏。化学染料废水被倾倒到水流中，造成污染，杀死水生生物群，破坏土壤，并污染食物链/饮用水供应。工人和当地人群会出现膀胱癌、不孕症、神经系统疾病和皮疹等副作用[Khan，Malik，2018]。最近的研究表明，穿戴者可能会经历皮肤灼伤、哮喘、自身免疫性疾病和具有致癌、致突变和再生效应的累积毒性[Wicker，2023]。然而，该行业继续依赖合成染料。这是因为替代品无法达到合成染料的 ** 亮度 **、** 寿命 ** 和 ** 一致性 ** 水平，目前的替代品是现有的传统天然染料，由于使用农田，这些染料 ** 不一致 ** 和 ** 昂贵 **，藻类染料 ** 缺乏抗紫外线能力 **，调色板 ** 有限，以及微生物染料，这些替代品无法满足工业需求，因此迫切需要天然的、可生物降解的和商业上可行的染料。SAGES染料 **SAGES创造 ** 天然，可生物降解，无污染 ** 和 ** 无毒 ** 染料 ** 来自食物垃圾 **。我们利用英国的食品废物流，如洋葱皮、鳄梨核和红卷心菜，提取可用于纺织品着色的鲜艳染料。该项目将使SAGES面临最大的障碍，即将实验室测试的提取/过滤方法结合到端到端工艺中，从每天100克的实验室规模批次扩展到每天5公斤的商业规模数量。

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.