Narrator: Ah, coffee.
It might be the very first
thing you think about in the
morning.
But what you don't think about:
all the waste that comes along
with that kick of caffeine.
In the US alone,
120 billion disposable coffee
cups are used every year.
But it's more than just the
cups and the lids that are
creating waste.
What about all those
used-up coffee grounds?
These reusable mugs are made
from recycled coffee grounds.
They're produced by Kaffeeform,
a Berlin-based start-up.
The idea for these ecofriendly
mugs first came about in
2009 when Julian was
studying product design.
- We had a lot of coffee
all the time. At some
point, I was wondering what
happens with all these spent
coffee grounds.
Narrator: Germany is one of
the largest coffee-consuming
countries in Europe, with the
average person going through
about 14 pounds of beans each year.
About 99% of paper, plastic,
and foam coffee cups end up in
the trash, and once they're in the trash,
even paper cups can take
over 20 years to decompose.
So by recycling one waste stream,
Kaffeeform helps tackle a bigger one.
Every day, a team of cyclists
travel to coffee shops
throughout Berlin to
collect used coffee grounds.
- Our exposition team wrote
to Kaffeeform in March 2018
that we would be interested
to work with them,
and the same day, Julian had a
meeting where they decided to
work only with bike logistics,
and when he got home,
he found the email of us and
was super excited about it,
and it was such a good
coincidence that it had to be.
Narrator: Crow Cycle Courier
Collective typically gathers
about 110 pounds of
grounds in just one day.
- When we pick up the coffee ground,
we go to three different
locations, mostly, and that takes
about 90 minutes until it's
dropped off at the workshop.
For a courier company,
this is not a usual task.
It is something that is pretty unique.
Narrator: The collected
grounds are then sorted
and then cleaned at Kaffeeform's workshop.
Then, they're transported
to another facility
where they're dried and
blended with plant fibers,
beechwood grains, and natural resins.
Once the new coffee-ground
granulate has been mixed
together, it gets shaped
under heat and pressure.
It takes about 6 cups of
grounds to produce one espresso
cup and saucer,
resulting in a final product
that's 40% coffee grounds
and 100% biodegradable.
- The ultimate goal is just
to highlight the value of
recycling and waste
streams back to society.
Narrator: Kaffeeform's cups
and mugs are used in 20
coffee shops in Berlin and
150 vendors across Europe.
But the company isn't
stopping at coffee mugs.
Julian hopes to one day shape
coffee grounds into lifestyle
products and even furniture pieces.
