German based company, Kaffeeform creates 100% biodegradable coffee cups from coffee grounds.
Julian Lechner, Kaffeeform’s founder, created a company that promotes the principle of a circular economy. The rising consumption of coffee around the world is producing a growing amount of coffee grounds, most of which goes straight into the bin.
The company in 2015 designed cups by reusing coffee grounds, otherwise wasted resources as a raw material.
The concept further helped with environmental sustainability by relying on bike logistics to acquire their coffee grounds. The company travels to different cafes in the Berlin area to gather the grounds needed to produce these cups.
Kaffeeform works with the bike logistics company, Crow Cycle Courier Collective. Each day, the courier company gathers about 110lb of coffee and drops them off at one of 3 different drop off locations. From these drop off locations, the grounds are taken to another facility to be processed.
This process involves mixing the grounds with renewable materials such as grains, natural resins, and plant fibers. This blend is then shaped under high heat and pressure.
A single mug requires 6 cups of coffee grounds. The final product consists of about 40% coffee grounds with the remaining 60% made of renewable raw materials making it 100% biodegradable.
These biodegradable coffee mugs are found in 20 coffee shops across Berlin and in 150 vendors in Europe.
Hello my friend
I am Hamed, from Multi Cafe Co.
Could you please advice me for following issue?
In our plant , produce About 20 tons spend coffee grounds daily .
Our R&D department would like to know more about how can we use from pulp to make cups?
I am looking for useful information about preparing a cup from coffee grounds (ingredients, composition percentage, mixing method, press machine specifications, etc.).
May you please share your information with me?
Thank you in advance for your kindness
Hello Hamed, we just write the articles I’m afraid – I have no idea how they do it, although there are a number of companies you could approach, including these people https://rensoriginal.com/ who make sneakers from coffee waste. Good luck 🙂
Como adquirir esas tazas?
Hi, if you’re a retailer you can contact them here: https://www.kaffeeform.com/en/b2b/
Hi, if the cups are biodegradable then how many times can they be actually used before they wear out?
Nothing lasts forever! I’m sure the business case improves if the cups wear out faster, but in seriousness, even if they’re not perfect, I welcome making steps in the right direction and getting rid of plastic.
Renouvelable? 100% Biodégradable? Soit c’est un mensonge via rémunération, soit un commentaire zélé issue d’une méconnaissance des faits dû à une vision angéliste des choses : la compagnie qui produit kaffeeform dit elle-même sur son propre site web ( https://www.kaffeeform.com/en/material/ ) que le kaffeeform n’est PAS compostable (= non biodégradable) . Certains matériaux de DEPART sont issus du recyclage, mais pour le moment aucun recyclage en bout de chaîne pour le produit fini: Ils insistent même sur le fait que le matériau est conçu pour être DURABLE dans le temps, un substitut aux plastiques durs de type mélamine et phénoliques. La compagnie dit en toutes lettres sur ledit site web que le seul moyen de se débarrasser du kaffeeform est de l’incinérer et que l’empreinte carbone de ce processus de destruction serait similaire à celle des matériaux de base (café moulu, bois de hêtre etc). De plus si les tasses étaient jetées dans la nature, elles y resteraient pour très très longtemps : (extrait du site web) “Are Kaffeeform products compostable?
Since the material has been developed for permanent use, it cannot simply break down in the compost. When disposed in the domestic waste, our products are burned within Europe (thermal disposal). The amount of CO2 released during this process corresponds to the amount that is bound during the growth of the plant.
We are working on a recirculation system so that our products don’t have to be disposed but can be recycled and used for new products instead.”
En gros ils promettent de pouvoir “trouver une solution bientôt” pour éviter l’incinération, mais honnêtement il y peu qu’on puisse faire. Au mieux le produit serait broyé en poudre et recyclé comme charge pour des adhésifs etc. Mais ce serait un peu optimiste, on broye déjà les coques de noix et certains bois. N’oubliez pas que les composites carbone-epoxy sont eux aussi incinérés quand ils sont en fin de vie, les solutions pour recycler sont minimes voire inexistantes