For many people, coffee is a vital part of their daily routine. However, many people throw away coffee grounds in trash bins and have no idea to recycle the grounds. In fact, coffee grounds can be converted to fertilizer, bio-fuel, and can be recycled into new, innovative products.

German designer Julian Lechner has spent three years developing coffee cups and saucers with coffee grounds and other renewable raw materials – such as plant fibres, wood grains, and biopolymers. His team collects leftover coffee grounds from local coffee shops and restaurants in Berlin. Then, they dry the coffee grounds and combine them with renewable raw materials to make a liquid composite for injection molds. "Kaffeeform is a sustainable material that aims to take advantage of these readily available waste materials to become an alternative to petrochemical-based structural plastics." said Lechner.

A set of cup and saucer can be produced from the waste of six consumed cups of coffee. Not only it reduces the generation of waste coffee grounds, but also avoids the use of more virgin materials to produce coffee cups. Moreover, Kaffeeform has launched the WEDUCER® cup for take away coffee, which is also made of coffee grounds. All Kaffeeform products have the odor and color of coffee, they are dish washer friendly, long-lasting, reusable and biodegradable. With the emergence of Kaffeeform products, it is hoped that the concept of coffee recycling could become more widespread and more people could be inspired to develop useful and eco-friendly products.

Sources:

https://sprudge.com/kaffeeform-89952.html

https://www.kaffeeform.com/en/

https://www.dezeen.com/2015/05/22/kaffeeform-recycled-ground-coffee-waste-cup-julian-lechner/