Kaiku Living Color

London based designer Nicole Stjernsward has developed Kaiku, a system that converts food waste into natural powdered pigments through vaporization technology. 

Although pigments were traditionally made from natural sources in the past, current commercially used paints are made from petrochemicals and other synthetic sources. Paints can release petroleum in the air during drying and synthetic pigments are toxic when they contaminate water sources. With Kaiku, pigments can be effectively derived from natural sources like fruit and vegetable waste, reducing the food waste piling up in landfills. 

The Kaiku machine produces powdered pigments in a few steps:

• The plant waste is first boiled to obtain a colored liquid dye that is later poured into the reservoirs in the Kaiku machine.
• This dye is forced through an atomizing nozzle into a glass vacuum cleaner.
• The fine mist produced is hot enough that it causes the liquid to vaporize, leaving behind the residual pigment color in the form of a powder.
• The powder is collected in a container and is ready for commercial use.

So far, Kaiku has been tested with lemons, avocados, pomegranates, onion, and beetroot. 

The powder form of the product makes it ideal for use as an additive in all kinds of pigments. This allows effective use in paints, textile dyes, and printer ink cartridges. 

The powdered pigment also has potential applications in biomaterials and cosmetics. 

Founder Nicole plans to further develop the Kaiku system, post which she will contact various designers and companies for potential partnerships. 

Kaiku was the runner-up at Krueger International's KI Awards in 2019.