From Waste to Resource: Coffee Cups Made Out of Used Coffee Grounds

in 2012 Americans generated about 251 million tons of trash. From that 164 million tons were sent to landfills to be buried for decades or sent to incinerators to be burned and reduced to ash. And what’s the #1 commodity that we send to landfills for disposal? The answer isn’t packaging; it’s food waste. Since the consumption rate of coffee is increasing more and more these days, the concern of what happens to the coffee grounds after its use has become pertinent.

German designer Julian Lechner is one of those people. After spending five years in development and testing, Kaffeeform was created: a material made up of used coffee grounds and other renewable raw materials. And what better way to use this material than to injection mold it into reusable coffee cups with matching saucers? (Product Ventures)