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.