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About: Three innovations fueled by coffee grounds “waste”: Imagine your morning. It is 8am. You switch on your laptop; you connect to the internet, and… You pour yourself a cup of coffee.
Coffee is the No. 1 fuel Europeans run on. In fact, most coffee in the world is consumed in Europe. We consume more than 5 kg per person per year - the weight of an average cat. In total, that is more than 3 million tons per year - or as much as 30,000 blue whales. But this also makes Europe the biggest producer of waste from coffee grounds. And that is endangering our climate and environment. Decomposing coffee waste releases methane. A greenhouse gas up to 86 times more dangerous for global warming than CO2. This is why entrepreneurs convert coffee waste into creative new products.
BERLIN In Berlin, a startup collects coffee waste from coffee roasters and cafés. The coffee grounds are dried and compounded. And turns into the material to produce new coffee cups.
LISBON In Lisbon, impact entrepreneurs have begun to grow oyster mushrooms by planting them into used coffee grounds. Coffee grounds remain clean and sterilized after being used to brew coffee. Which makes them ideal soil to cultivate mushrooms. They get harvested and delivered to local cafés and restaurants. The residues of coffee grounds hide more secrets.
LONDON A company in the UK extracted 6,000 liters of this “coffee oil” from waste. And turned it into biofuel to power some of London’s iconic red buses. The company also makes logs and pellets from recycled coffee waste. That burn more efficiently than traditional wood.
