Exploring Waste Management with Art Media in the Laboratory: Pigments, Inks, and Paints from Dye Waste

As chemical and material wastes have harmful effects on both human and environmental health, waste management is an essential component of climate action. To educate students about core green chemistry principles, it is necessary to teach and practice waste management strategies in the laboratory. Following a previously described laboratory exercise where students use natural feedstocks to tie-dye fabric, this follow-up exercise focuses on students upcycling waste dye and mordant baths into pigment, inks, and paints and evaluating their chemical and material properties and applications. The exercise has students generate, handle, store, use, and properly dispose of waste feedstocks and products while creating biobased art media. It expands on the first exercise exploring the use of reagents from renewable resources to create waste-derived versions of historical iron gall ink formulations. These waste-based art media are then analyzed, distinguishing optical, textural, and drying properties using the Munsell Color System and a texture wheel. Students iteratively formulate media to target applications including writing, printing, and painting. The exercise connects the practice of waste management and the explores the relationships between material composition, function, and application. The exercise both educates students on waste management strategies and reduces the amount of waste generated during laboratory classes. By circularizing materials in the teaching laboratory, students and educators foster an increasingly sustainable and circular economy.