From waste to wardrobe – SLINTEC’s king coconut natural dye launched

In a world dominated by the artificial and the synthetic, a humble hero emerged from the depths of Sri Lanka. The king coconut husks, once discarded as mere waste, seized the moment to redefine its role in the fight against synthetic substitutes.

Zeroing in on the king coconut husks cast aside without a second thought, it was Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC), the first Public Private Partnership focusing on research and nanotechnology that breathed life into these overlooked materials, when they developed a natural dye leading the charge to empower natural dyes and challenge the monopoly of synthetic substitutes.

SLINTEC developed this revolutionary product called Kingco for Prasara Washing Plant Dankotuwa (Pvt) Ltd, an industrial washing solutions firm catering to foreign clothes labels.

In business for 30 years, the company decided to go for a natural dye and approached SLINTEC due to many customer requests, Dhammika Hapuarachchige, Managing Director Prasara Washing Plant Dankotuwa (Pvt) Ltd told the Business Times on Wednesday in Colombo.

Senior Research Scientist, Dr. Nuwan de Silva with his team of Research Scientists – Nilupuli Rathnayaka and Kasindu Pramod managed to develop this natural dye within three months.

SLINTEC has filed the patent for the product with the National Intellectual Property Office.

Waste of synthetic dyes from the textile industry are categorised as hazardous wastes, made from petrochemicals, which is bad news for the environment. The textile industry is listed as one of the top three environmental polluters, Dr. de Silva said. “One of the popular solutions is to shift from synthetic material to natural dyes. When Prasara approached us with a solution for natural dyes, we thought of King coconut husks, which do not have a proper disposal method.”

Thushara Vajira Perera, Director SLINTEC told The Business Times that using king coconut husks is important in the fight against dengue.

This king coconut dye has less than 5 per cent of synthetic dye mix to give a stunning colour palette.

Colouring a garment using this nontoxic, biodegradable, and eco-friendly natural dye cuts 1/5 of water pollution, and dyeing time, and one King coconut husk can dye a crew neck t-shirt and trouser.

Ms. Rathnayaka noted that while materials such as polyester and nylon can be dyed using this dye, the procedure of extracting the colourants from the husks and forming the dye powder was also an ecofriendly process.