Dyeing of cotton with the natural dye extracted from waste leaves of green tea (Camellia sinensis var. assamica)

Due to an increase in the production of green tea, the amount of leaf waste has increased enormously, causing serious environmental problems. With regard to environmental awareness, the possibility of reusing the waste leaves of green tea as a low‐cost and abundantly available source of natural dye for dyeing cotton fibres was investigated. Natural dye powder from the waste leaves of green tea (NDPT) was successfully applied to dye cotton fibres without mordant by batch experiments. NDPT was obtained as a dark brown powder with a yield of 2.7 ± 0.5% w/w from dried waste leaves of green tea. The optimal conditions for dyeing NDPT onto cotton fibres were: pH of dye solution, 3; material to liquor ratio, 100:1; dyeing time, 180 min; concentration of dye solution, 3.0 mg/ml; and dyeing temperature, 100 °C. The colour of cotton fibres dyed with NDPT was observed to be dark brown. The adsorption data of NDPT on cotton fibres was best fitted with a Langmuir adsorption isotherm model with a correlation coefficient (R²) of 0.997. It is clear that there is a strong possibility of reusing the waste leaves of green tea as a low‐cost and abundantly available source of natural dye for dyeing cotton fibres.