For many of us, spring is an excuse to bring out brighter clothes from our wardrobes. But when Jim Ajioka and Orr Yarkoni discovered brights can come at a toxic cost, they decided to do something.
The two synthetic biologists, had travelled to rural Nepal to develop biological sensors for monitoring heavy metal contamination in drinking water. What they found was pollution in the rivers created by chemical dyes made in local villages.
“We witnessed environmental devastation,” says Jim. Using their knowledge of microbes they created Colorifix, a company which has pioneered the first entirely biological process to produce, deposit and fix pigments onto textiles. Compared to conventional dyeing, it uses 80% fewer chemicals, 77% less water and 31% fewer carbon dioxide emissions.
But Jim is keen to emphasise that this is only…
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The Simple Things (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2024