Towards a more integrated management of organic waste in Kenya; the production of natural dyes from fruit and vegetable waste

This proposal will develop sustainable extraction pathways for natural dyes from fruit and vegetable waste making Kenya more independent of imported, often toxic synthetic colorants. Apart from these high valued products, the project will elaborate a more sustainable overall management scheme for organic waste in the case study region of Thika, including applications such as animal feed and anaerobic digestion. The main scientific challenge will be to increase the knowledge of properties and application potential of the dye molecules. The main technical challenge is to develop a robust and cheap extraction process operational at small/meso scale to mitigate large transport distances. Furthermore, chemical analysis of these molecules is not evident and procedures should be explored to allow characterization in a Kenyan context. The main societal challenge is to develop a holistic waste management scheme including all sources and all demands and to develop a business model for valorization of organic waste that involves all stakeholders and allows sharing of added value amongst industry and citizens.