A café from Berlin, Kaffeeform, has been making cups from recycled grounds for 3 years. These cups are reusable, recyclable, and most importantly, adorable.
The founder, Julian Lechner, was concerned about all the coffee grounds that are being thrown out to waste and thought of a solution for it.
On average, Germany has the biggest number for coffee-consumption, with one person estimated to have around 6kg of coffee beans each year.
In the U.S, around 12p billion disposable coffee cups are used annually, with 99% of them ending up in the landfills that would take 20 years to decompose.
The idea came to Julian when he was studying product design in 2009.
In March 2018, a team of bike logistics wrote to Kaffeeform about their interest in working with them, Julian replying to agree with them on the same day.
The team of cyclists would travel to coffee shops all around Berlin to collect coffee grounds – they would come back with around 50kg of it every day.
The grounds are then collected and cleaned at Kaffeform’s workshop, then transported to a facility that would take the necessary measures like blending plant fibers and natural resins to form the final product.
Using heat and pressure to shape the cup, the product is 100% biodegradable, with 40% of it being just coffee grounds.
The cups are currently used in 20 coffee shops across Berlin and 150 vendors all around Europe.
Julian also stated that he is hoping he would one-day shape coffee grounds into lifestyle products and even furniture pieces.
Source: Insider