Here in the Netherlands we drink a humongous amount of coffee. The result of this is an enormous amount of coffee grounds. The trade organisation “Koffie & Thee Nederland” (Coffee & Tea Netherlands) has worked out that in this country we produce around 300 million kilos of coffee grounds each year. Most of which is just thrown away. A cardinal sin because there are plenty of ways of making better use of this organic by-product. In this blog we look more closely at seven initiatives that are doing their best to recycle coffee grounds in various different ways.

1. Coffee Based

Coffee Based processes coffee grounds into a 100% natural substance that is then used in the production of various bio-based products, including notebooks, plant pots, coffee cups and coffee machines.

To obtain the coffee grounds they need, Coffee Based has set up the Koffie Recycle Service (KRS), in collaboration with coffee supplier MAAS and waste processor SUEZ. Across the whole of the Netherlands they collect coffee grounds from companies and institutions that drink 1,200 cups or more of coffee each week. For this collection, these organisations pay a little more than for a normal waste processor, but this is offset by the fact that half of what they pay they get back in the form of a credit they can use to purchase bio-based products.

For more information: www.coffeebased.nl.

2. Rotterzwam

Seven years ago, the financial services provider Siemen Cox set up Rotterzwam, a city nursery for oyster mushrooms (zwam = mushroom in Dutch) grown on coffee grounds. It took a while before Cox found just the right blend of ingredients and conditions, but now Rotterzwam produces about 350 kilo per month. This requires approx. 5,500 kilo of coffee grounds.

“The quantity of coffee grounds that we process may seem like a drop in the ocean”, says Cox in an article in Trouw newspaper (July 2020). “Really, we mainly want our business to inspire others. That is why from day one we shared everything we learned on the mushroom-cultivation.com website. We blog and give online courses. In this way we hope to inspire people around the world to get started themselves using coffee grounds.” In this way they have already trained up several dozen local entrepreneurs, including some in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Chile and Canada.

For more information: www.rotterzwam.nl.

3. Unwaste

In their own words: Unwaste believes in a world where there is no waste. This is why they give organic residues a second life by turning them into care products. That includes using coffee grounds: they make both solid and liquid soap from coffee grounds and orange peel. In addition they are hard at work developing dispenser soaps for companies, restaurants and hotels.

In order to be able to make soap from coffee, all kinds of additional ingredients are needed, from all over the world. That is not very sustainable, which is why Unwaste are doing their best to substitute ingredients from waste products in the Netherlands, or European substances for as many of these as possible. Whatever else they use, all solid soaps are free of palm oil and micro plastics.

For more information: www.unwaste.nl.

4. S.Café®

With S.Café® the Taiwanese textile company Singtex is trying to meet the growing demand for new, innovative and sustainable materials in the fashion industry. S.Café® is a filament that is made from coffee grounds. A special technology is used for this. According to the S.Café® website, this technology works at low temperatures, with high pressure and an energy saving process.

The result is a filament with special properties, such as a drying time up to 200% faster than cotton. In addition the micro-pores in S. Café® absorb odours and reflect UV rays. The coffee thread can be used to make many kinds of products, including (sports) clothing and also underwear and bedclothes.

For more information: www.scafefabrics.com.

5. CaffeInk

CaffeInk takes another completely different approach. They use coffee grounds to produce environmentally friendly ink and vegetable oil. Their methods differ in one important respect from many other sustainable initiatives to turn coffee grounds into something else: these tend to burn most of the coffee grounds while it still contains valuable substances, such as oils and dyes. CaffeInk uses precisely these to produce ink.

The nice thing about this is that at the same time they are delivering a green alternative to the polluting carbon black pigment that black ink usually contains: this is obtained from partial burning of fossil fuels. CaffeInk makes it possible to replace this pigment with an ink pigment made from coffee grounds. Given that coffee grounds are naturally already dark, it does not need to be partially burned in order to get a black colour. CaffeInk is the first company in the world to make black ink in this way from coffee grounds.

CaffeInk is still in its start-up phase. They have involved Bodec to help them streamline their development process so that they can scale up successfully to the necessary level, The goal is to eventually set up their own bio-refinery.

For more information: www.voordewereldvanmorgen.nl/leden/caffeink.

6. OVDesigns

OVDesigns ties neatly into what CaffeInk is doing in their approach. Even though they are not burning the coffee grounds, they are processing them into bio-based plastic. This helps to reduce the amount of oil consumed by the plastics industry. The plastic can then be used to make products like chairs and serving trays.

There are even two types that are completely biodegradable. As long as you keep your products dry, you can keep using them for years. If the plastic is just left sitting outdoors it simply decays. So these variants are perfect for disposable products.

For more information: www.ovdesigns.nl.

7. Pectcof

Pectcof is an innovative start-up that has developed a new technology that makes it possible to extract valuable products, specifically pectin, from coffee pulp. They are working hard on their main product, Dutch Gum, which will soon be on the market. Bodec has offered a helping hand at various stages.

Dutch gum consists of a pectin and protein fraction, so it is very well suited for use as an emulsifier or stabiliser in foodstuffs. In the future, Pectcof also wants to process other by-products from coffee grounds. They are thinking, for example, about antioxidants, colouring, fructose and fibre that absorbs water.

For more information: www.pectcof.com.