Eco pastels cut waste, colors from food waste

Here come the ecological pastels made with rice waste, fruit and vegetables in the name of the circular economy.

Corn, broccoli, green pepper, black currant, sweet potato, are just some of the foods used to give colors to Oyasai Crayons currently marketed in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai and the United States.

To create them is the Japanese graphic Naoko Kimura who, thinking of her children, has banned harmful chemicals often contained in the colors.

A German study has in fact examined the best known pastels on the market, finding 15 suspicious types with dangerous dyes;

they may contain carcinogenic aromatic amines derived from azo dyes, which are considered inexpensive and easy to process.

The idea of ​​eco-color took shape from DIY, transforming in a few years into a real line of plant-based pastels that, among other things, fights waste.

In fact, rice bran oil and discarded parts of vegetables and fruit, such as leaves, peels and stems, are used to give the color. Scraps that are sometimes combined with other food-grade pigments to further improve the color tone of pastels. If green is Cabbage for and external cabbage leaves often discarded or left on the ground as compost, red is Apple using the husks removed, yellow is Corn for corn waste and so on. (HANDLE).