BioBlack Printed T-Shirt: Collaboration with Nature Coatings

Introducing the Nature Coatings BioBlack Printed Organic Cotton T-Shirt. Screen printed with ink made from wood waste, this t-shirt is an example of a simple solution that when scaled up, will have a significant benefit to our environment.

The Search to Replace Carbon Black

The life of this shirt starts with our parent company, TS Designs, that specializes in wholesale printed t-shirts. 

Black pigments used in printing inks are typically made from hydrocarbons such as tar, petroleum and natural gas, which release toxins and intensify climate change. 

TS Designs, on its never-ending journey of sustainability, has been searching over the past year for the best bio-based black ink. The goal was to find an alternative that will fully replace our use of carbon black.

Trials and Testing

Four companies met our requirements and we tested each of their versions of bio-based ink materials that were derived from materials like algae, sludge, wood waste, and hemp. The inks were tested internally for depth of shade before providing samples to Cotton Incorporated and the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists for wash and light fastness testing.

Nature Coatings’ BioBlack

In terms of color intensity, price, and colorfast results, Nature Coatings’ BioBlack Ink stood out above the rest. Jane Palmer, the company’s CEO started her sustainability journey 15 years ago as the founder of a natural dye house in LA. Her ultimate goal of wanting to make an impact at scale was proven difficult due to the expensive nature of natural dyes and the struggles with wash and light fastness. Knowing that many people would jump at the chance to replace their carbon black, Jane changed paths to create a solution. After years of trial and error, promising results came from using wood waste. Watch this video to see how Nature Coatings’ BioBlack is made.

The United States creates about 50,000 tons of waste each year from discarded furniture, renovations, logging operations, and paper mills. Most of that ends up incinerated or in the landfill, further harming the environment. The proprietary process Jane created starts with sustainable and ethically sourced wood waste, which is Forest Stewardship Council certified. The waste is processed using renewable energy that’s sourced from the manufacturing operation itself. In the end, it is a zero waste, closed loop system that is non toxic, carbon negative, and still meets the depth of shade of carbon black.

According to Nature Coatings, 4.62 million tons of CO2 would be mitigated annually if the BioBlack pigments and dispersions replaced all carbon black used in plastics, inks, paint and coatings. It’s the equivalent of a car driving around the Earth circumference more than 100,000 times!

Wearable BioBlack

This limited edition release is the first step in transitioning from carbon black to bio black inks, which we plan to accomplish for our screen-printing side of the business by the end of the year.

When considering the graphic to use for this shirt, we knew we wanted it to somehow relate to the source of the ink. Thinking outside the box, and inside the tree, we performed an ink-print by rolling Nature Coatings’ BioBlack ink onto a River Birch log from our wood waste pile, and then scanned the print for screen-printing. Our in-house graphic designer, Ilsa Spaan, drew “Bio Black” in the part of the tree that didn’t pick up.

These unisex t-shirts come in two colors, Dove Grey and Cloud. When you purchase a BioBlack printed t-shirt, you wear the story of sustainability on your chest.