Text: Lyra Liu
*: foodaily daily food (id: foodaily).
In the past year, the coffee market has continued to heat up. Leading brands have set the goal of 1,000 stores and 10,000 stores, and high-frequency updated new products and IP co-branding continue to bring freshness to consumers, and more and more cutting-edge coffee brands have obtained financing.
While people are paying attention to new products in the coffee market, foodaily has found that a large number of domestic brands have started to distribute coffee grounds for free in stores. At the front desk of Starbucks, McCafe, Lucky Coffee and other coffee stores, there are packaged coffee grounds for consumers to take, and there are also instructions for using coffee grounds. On social media, there is also a lot of sharing about the use of coffee grounds. There are also brands that even use coffee grounds for production.
Little Red Book.
How did coffee grounds become a new carrier of brand marketing?What can you do with humble coffee grounds?From waste to "miracle ingredients", why is there such a change in the identity of coffee grounds?
Coffee brands collectively push coffee grounds
Coffee grounds are free!”
Foodaily has found that many freshly made coffee shops have recently seen signs with similar words written on them.
Starbucks, Lucky Coffee, McCafe, K Coffee and other coffee brands have given away coffee grounds offline, and have also thoughtfully put a guide to the use of coffee grounds to encourage the secondary use of coffee grounds.
Xiaohongshu blogger @留sa,Cudi Coffee、Lucky Coffee。
And consumers have gradually developed the Xi of collecting coffee grounds. On social platforms, there are many sharing tips on how to use coffee grounds, planting greenery, homemade scrubs, refrigerator deodorant, ......Coffee grounds became an all-powerful daily necessities for a while.
In fact, these uses of coffee grounds are traceable. Coffee grounds have many components similar to organic fertilizers, such as nitride, phosphide, cellulose, hemicellulose, crude protein, crude fat, etc., so they can be used for composting;At the same time, coffee grounds have a pore nanostructure, which has the ability of adsorption, deodorization, etc., and can even be used to make activated carbon.
In addition to distributing coffee grounds for free in stores, we also found offline activities carried out by some coffee shops on social media, allowing consumers to experience the green use of coffee grounds.
Starbucks has used offline salon activities to carry out environmentally friendly handicraft activities such as "coffee grounds are more meaty" and "coffee grounds soap".KFC China has also launched a nationwide theme activity of "Recycling, Replenishing 'Planting' for the Earth", using coffee grounds from KFC Park Food Truck** for green composting. These activities not only allowed consumers to feel the joy of handicraft, but also actually experienced the secondary use of coffee grounds, and the brand also established an environmentally friendly image in the minds of consumers.
Starbucks, Xiaohongshu blogger @cotton is only a coca, KFC.
But there's more to coffee grounds than that.
As early as 2021, Starbucks launched "Residue Tube" and "Residue Cup" made from coffee grounds as raw materials. According to Starbucks, this "slag tube" is a biodegradable straw made of PLA (polylactic acid) and coffee grounds, which degrades more than 90% within 4 monthsThe "pomace cup" is made of coffee grounds instead of part of PP plastic particles, and the content of coffee grounds in the material exceeds 30%. Both of these products are reused through independent research and development, ** in-house coffee grounds are dehydrated and dried.
Subsequently, Starbucks also launched a variety of limited-edition coffee environmental protection peripherals, such as notebooks, teddy bears, lunch boxes, etc.
Starbucks China.
Coincidentally, the specialty coffee chain brand Manner has also launched straws made from coffee grounds. Manner thinks,"While implementing environmentalism, the aroma of coffee + coffee grounds straws can also bring consumers a double happiness experience.
It can be said that using coffee grounds for the production of coffee supplies is a practice that kills two birds with one stone, which not only reduces the waste of coffee grounds in the store, but also brings more coffee aroma and immersion in it.
Why reuse coffee grounds?
In the past year, with the battle between coffee brands and the wave of store opening, China's coffee market has entered a period of rapid growth, which has also made many consumers develop the Xi of drinking coffee every day. According to the Blue Book of China's Coffee Industry, in 2023, the scale of the ready-made coffee market will exceed 100 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 30%.
However, the carbon footprint tracker **CO2 Everything shows,Every 15g of coffee beans will produce about 04 kg of CO2 equivalent, equivalent to 2 kilometers of a car. In 2022, the total global consumption of coffee beans reached 10.03 million tons, which will produce about 2670,000 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent. That's a pretty staggering number. Unexpectedly, while coffee provides people with abundant energy and good enjoyment, it is also causing serious effects on the environment.
In addition to the production and processing of coffee beans, the large amount of coffee grounds left after the production is also quietly destroying our ecological environment. According to the International Coffee Association (ICO), 650kg of coffee grounds can be produced per ton of coffee beans, and about 13g of coffee grounds are produced for every 300ml cup of coffee made, which are usually landfilled as production waste.
Photographer Tyler Nix
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyCoffee grounds are landfilled to produce gases such as methane, which are associated with the greenhouse effect, which is more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide. Simply discarding coffee grounds is neither cost-effective nor environmentally friendly.
Not only coffee grounds, but also the entire coffee industry chain has the problem of waste of resources and environmental pollution. The planting, picking, processing, transportation and storage of coffee beans all require a lot of energy and resources, and a large amount of waste gas and wastewater are also emitted during the production process. Therefore, in the past period, coffee production was considered an unenvironmentally friendly industry.
Today, more and more companies have established a sense of sustainable developmentBegan to practice the secondary use of coffee grounds, to establish a green image for enterprises, and even set a grand goal of "achieving zero carbon emissions by 2030".
Enterprises reuse coffee grounds,More than just a symbol of environmental protection and sustainable production, it is a shift in business strategy. According to Kerry's China Sustainability data, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and upgrading waste are the two most important aspects of food production for consumers. In addition, reducing air pollution and carbon neutrality are the two aspects that consumers are most concerned about in environmental air protection.
Kerry.
The majority of Chinese consumers believe that businesses and companies need to play a leading role in driving sustainable development. As the largest force in socio-economic activity, the many brands that can link to and influence consumer behavior are particularly important in driving consumers' perception of sustainability.
The secondary excavation of the value of coffee grounds can not only enhance the sustainable image of the brand, but also help reduce the cost of waste disposal for the brand;Product development based on coffee grounds has also indirectly increased brand revenue.
This summer, TIMS Tianhao Coffee's first "green environmental protection test store" with the theme of "coffee grounds" opened. It is understood that the main material of the store uses a new type of environmentally friendly board of "straw mixed coffee grounds" to create a natural and warm feelingInside, coffee grounds are incorporated into every detail: maple leaf paintings, chairs, perforated boards, flavoring bars, ......
Such a coffee space made of "coffee grounds upcycled materials" is not only environmentally friendly, but also magical to the touch, vaguely exuding the taste of coffee grounds, bringing people a unique and immersive coffee experience. Such a unique design has not only received praise from the industry, but also attracted many consumers to check in.
tims good days China.
Can it be burned, can be used, can be worn, and can be eaten?
Coffee grounds turned out to be not "dregs".
In addition to coffee companies using their own waste coffee grounds, foodaily has found that coffee grounds are also crossing over to other fields and becoming a low-cost and popular environmentally friendly material.
1. Coffee grounds have become an environmentally friendly fuel
Back in 2016, a British energy company called "Bio-Bean" came up with the idea of discarding coffee grounds and processing them into biofuel. Kay, the founder of Bio-Bean, discovered that the oil extracted from waste coffee grounds could be further processed into biodiesel, which could be used as a fuel for carsThe remaining coffee grounds can be drained and made into blocks or pellets to turn into biomass pellet fuel for barbecue or boiler combustion.
This car fuel, which contains "coffee oil", is already widely used in London buses. It is understood that 200 litres of fuel can be produced per tonne of coffee grounds, enough to support a London bus running all day. At the same time, with this technology, for every ton of waste coffee grounds recycled, it can reduce by 68 tons of CO2 emissions.
***bio-bean
2. Coffee grounds become small objects in life
The German start-up Kaffee Form has played with coffee grounds as a "flower". They cycle coffee grounds from various cafes in Berlin to be used in the production of their products. Here, coffee grounds can be used not only as cups, plates and other cutlery, but also as straps, and their coffee grounds cup won the Red Dot Product Design Award in 2018.
Unlike other coffee grounds recycled products, Kaffee Form's material contains recycled wood fibers, a subtle natural woody aroma that replaces the coffee aroma for a more neutral aroma, and the material can be dyed to create a wealth of variety and variety in product design.
Kaffee FormIn recent years, many coffee grounds brands have also been born in China, such as Origin Mol and Zhalabo Residue Research Institute, all of which use coffee grounds cups as their main products and take sustainable life as the starting point to create a different coffee experience.
3. Coffee grounds can also be worn on the body
As early as 2009, Taiwan Singapore began to independently develop and produce coffee gauze fabrics, and has reached cooperation with more than 100 clothing brands such as PUMA, ADIDAS, and New Balance. It is understood that this kind of coffee yarn is a functional polyester staple fiber produced by calcining and grinding the coffee grounds into nano level, which is coffee carbon fiber. The irregular surface of the coffee after nanoning gives the fabric an anti-UV and quick-drying effect, and its UV protection is more than 5 times higher than that of pure cotton.
In 2022, Italian fashion brand ASH and Nespresso collaborated to launch four RE ASH products in the Asia-Pacific region, each of which is made of recycled aluminum from **coffee grounds and **capsule shell provided by Nespresso, and inspired by the exterior color and decoration design of Nespresso coffee capsules, conveying the concept of "reducing carbon footprint" of the two brands through the products.
***singtex、nespresso
4. Coffee grounds help the food industry
Compared to food processing, we found that coffee grounds are mostly used to make household items. But in fact, with the development of technology, the inedible coffee grounds have also been turned into delicious food under the exploration of scientific researchers.
Under the influence of thousands of years of agricultural civilization, Chinese have always maintained their enthusiasm for growing vegetables. As mentioned earlier, many consumers use coffee grounds for composting and planting potted plants. Nowadays, more and more businesses are startingComposting of coffee grounds is applied to crop production.
In 2019, Taiwan's Nespresso announced the results of a joint research with Taipei National University on the use of coffee grounds for organic farming. They found that after using coffee grounds compost or foliar spraying of coffee grounds extractNot only does it suppress insect infestations, but the fruits and vegetables are also rounder and plump, with a better taste and flavor. Subsequently, this technology was popularized and applied in many regions of Taiwan Province.
United News Network.
This summer, Japan's Doutor Coffee launched a matcha milk. It is worth mentioning that the raw material matcha is a new variety of tea grown using compost of waste coffee grounds in the store. The tea grown in this way hasMore fine roots that are conducive to absorbing nutrients, not only reduces the waste of coffee grounds, but also brings a unique product experience to consumers. The brand said it will continue to work on research into sustainable coffee products and continue to explore the possibilities of coffee grounds.
***doutor
In addition to composting, some companies have developed ways to convert coffee grounds directly into raw ingredients. They believe that coffee grounds, rich in carbohydrates, lipids and proteins, are a promising ingredient in the food industry.
In 2021, researchers at the National University of Singapore developed:A method of converting waste coffee grounds into alcoholic beverages。They fermented the coffee grounds hydrolysate with microorganisms to obtain an alcoholic fermentation broth rich in bioactive phytochemicals and amino acids. The result is a drink with a similar alcohol content to beer, but with significantly more nutrients.
Not only beverages, but also oil and baking powder can be extracted from coffee grounds.
Kaffe Bueno is a Danish biotechnology company that owns the world's first coffee biorefineryWe are committed to upgrading coffee by-products into cosmetics, nutritional products, and food raw materials.
Here, coffee grounds are fractionated into different compounds to make new ingredients such as kaffe bueno oil (lipids for personal care and food), kafflour (gluten-free and protein-rich functional flour) and kaffibre (a natural exfoliating product used as a cosmetic product). Today, Kaffe Bueno has reached raw material cooperation with more than 20 brands such as Nivea and 711.
Snacks from Kaffibre, hair oil from Kaffoil, **Kaffe Bueno
In 2019, Kaffe Bueno was one of the first companies in Denmark to receive the B B B certification after meeting stringent standards for social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. Today, Kaffe Bueno continues to offer us a wide range of coffee grounds reuse products with their sustainable ingredients.
Summary
According to Kantar's 2022 Sustainability Index, 64% of Chinese consumers believe that resource waste has a negative impact on the environment, which is significantly higher than the global average (57%).
With the increasingly turbulent coffee consumption and brand entry boom in China, how to effectively use the coffee machine and the large number of coffee grounds retained in the production line has become a must-answer question in front of the Chinese people. Foodaily noticed that many domestic companies, including Xingwei International Home Furnishing and Xitou Chuangzhi Center, have been laying out the coffee grounds reuse market. However, both the number and scale of players, as well as the way they use them and the types of products, are still in their infancy. In the future, more enterprises need to explore and practice.
Ordering a cup of ** coffee every day has become the daily Xi of many friends around me. And when will various "coffee grounds products" that are green and low-carbon and full of coffee aroma become an indispensable role in public life?