Ceylon Tea Stain Turned Into A Fashion Opportunity
Ceylon Tea produced in the resplendent island nation Sri Lanka is recognized for her well balanced tasting profile by tea connoisseurs all over the globe. Tea is the 4th largest GDP contributor of this pretty island nation following expatriates, Apparel and tourism. So both tea & apparel are contributing a lot to the national economy. As Unilever had reported, Waste (tea stain) from their Ceytea factory in Sri Lanka is being transformed into a suite of natural fabric dyes that are providing the fashion industry with greener alternatives.
Agarapathana, situated in Dimbulla tea growing region of Sri Lanka, is the base for Ceytea, Unilever’s instant tea factory. The site’s 153-dedicated workforce produces 2,500 metric tons of ready-to-drink tea powder for our Lipton iced tea business each year.
The factory generated five tons of waste tea sludge on each working day. Ceytea’s factory manager, Anusha Kotalawala and her team were working to find ways to reduce this and its environmental impact.
“The waste tea sludge was staining our factory uniforms,” says Anusha
“The idea that this could be an opportunity came to light when we were approached by Professor Vinitha Thadhani, a senior research scientist and inventor from SLINTECH, Sri Lanka’s leading Nano-Tech Institute,” explains Anusha. “She was undertaking research in natural dyes and we literally came up in a Google search.
It took nearly three years of research and one year of research and development for SLINTEC to come up with a process that created an effective dye that met industry standards.
Currently, as well as producing instant tea powder, the Ceytea produces the base ingredient for a suite of natural fabric dyes. The brand name for the dyes is T-Hues. The process sees the tea waste segregated, filtered and then spray-dried to create the base for tea dye in powder form. This can then be transformed into a range of 15 natural colours.
I am quite certain that most of “Tea with Nipun” viewers are not fans of Lipton or their Iced Teas. But as tea professionals and lovers, we all must appreciate sustainable practices like these.
Read More About Ceylon Tea: https://www.pureceylontea.com/
View More Latest Tea News + Articles: https://www.teawithnipun.com/
References
- Original Post: https://www.unilever.com/news/news-and-features/Feature-article/2019/how-a-tea-stain-turned-into-a-fashion-opportunity.html?
- About Ceytea: http://ceyteainternational.com/
