[Photo/CGTN]

Believe it or not, beautiful colors can be made from humble food waste and one group of youngsters in Hong Kong have grabbed a business opportunity right out of the trash can by turning thrown away food into dye.

In 2013, Eric Cheung and Winnie Ngai founded their company Dyelicious, the first kitchen trash workshop in the city.

They can create red from wood, yellow from onion and ginger, blue from purple cabbage and gray tones from tea.

"Nature is the big source of our raw material. Every single piece of material could be raw material for our color testing, such as coffee grounds, soy dregs and even leaves," said Winnie.

With a lack of information to refer to, the team spent five years researching how to get the right colors from food waste.