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Color is crucial in human expression and communication, enhancing art, design, and everyday writing. However, conventional markers and inks pose environmental and health hazards due to heavy metals, VOCs, and harmful solvents. Their non-refillable nature also leads to significant chemical waste.
Our research introduces a sustainable approach to drawing instruments by using pigments that change color with pH variations. This innovation leverages pigments found in bacteria and vegetables, such as anthocyanins in red cabbage and actinorhodin in Streptomyces coelicolor.
Our marker is designed to be open-source and easy to produce with a 3D printer. The ink can be endlessly refilled by adding more bacterial cultures or vegetable juice, significantly reducing waste. The pH-responsive ink offers multiple colors in a single marker, allowing for creative versatility and reducing the need for multiple single-use markers.
Future plans include developing an adapter to make the marker compatible with 3D printers, expanding its applications in textile and graphic design. This sustainable marker aims to revolutionize the industry by providing an eco-friendly, versatile, and engaging tool, inspiring sustainable practices, and promoting a circular economy through refillable, multi-color, and non-toxic writing instruments.
The project created by: Nóra Gulya, Csongor Boldizsár Nagy, Szonja Somogyvári
More Info:
biodesignchallenge.org
