Jiangning Che, Educator and Researcher

Sustainable Natural Textile Coloration Using Agriculture Waste

The overwhelming usage of synthetic colorants has presented issues concerning health, the environment, and sustainability. The dyeing of natural fibers with plants dyestuff is an alternate coloration practice, which is preferable for the trend of Eco and healthy in modern life by consumers and major fashion brands or retailers. On the other hand, it is becoming increasingly important to find innovative solutions for reducing agricultural byproducts, as they can contribute to negative environmental impacts. The under-utilized byproducts contain natural colorants that may be readily applied to substitute some synthetic colorants. Applications using these natural plant colorants, when compared with synthetic dyes, exhibit higher biodegradability, environmental compatibility, and lower toxicity. There are strong recommendations to re-instate natural colorants to the status as the important ingredient of fashion color. Research into the use of aforementioned agricultural byproducts as natural colorants could potentially provide the textile and agricultural industry with an additional sustainable solution. This presentation introduces ongoing research using colored extracts from three agricultural wastes, orange pomace, pumpkin peels, and almond shell respectively, for textile coloration with proper color shade, strength, and permanence.

Bio

Dr. Jiangning Che is an Associate Professor in the Department of Apparel Merchandising and Management at Cal Poly Pomona. He earned his Ph.D. Degree in Textile Coloration and he had 10 years of industrial experience in the textile and apparel industry. He has expertise in industry color application with textile, apparel, and other related principles. Dr. Che’s research interests are color science & application, and textile coloration with natural resources.

The Inter-Society Color Council advances the knowledge of color as it relates to art, science, industry and design.
Each of these fields enriches the others, furthering the general objective of color education.