Crayon crop: From soybean field to art box

INDIANAPOLIS — Crayons made from soybean oil are an environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional crayons, which are made of petroleum-based paraffin wax.

Visitors learned about soy crayons at the Glass Barn, an educational experience at the Indiana State Fair.

How Soy Crayons Are Made

1. Grow the soybeans. Farmers grow and harvest soybeans, then sell them to a crushing plant.

2. Crush the soybeans. At the plant, the soybeans are processed to separate the soybean oil from the soybean meal. The meal can be used for animal feed or soybean protein, and the oil can be used for food and industrial products, or biodiesel.

3. Make soy wax. The soybean oil is processed to make soy wax, which makes up 85% of a soybean crayon’s ingredients.

4. Ship to the manufacturer. Soybean wax is shipped to the crayon manufacturer.

5. Create the liquid crayon. Workers add strengthening agents and powdered pigments to the liquid wax solutions. These pigments give crayons their unique colors, and soybean oil makes them brighter and smoother to use than traditional wax crayons.

6. Mold, label and box the crayons. The liquid wax solution is then injected molds. After the molds cool, the crayons are ejected and a robotic arm carries them to a labeling station. The labeled crayons are fed into a funnel, where a mechanical arm sweeps them into a box with a laser-etched date code.

7. Ship to the distributor. Finally, the finished boxes of crayons are shipped to a distributor. You can buy soybean crayons under the Prang brand online and in art stores.