Many people can’t start the day without a nice hot cup of coffee. Perhaps you’re a real coffee buff who uses a French press, a pour-over dripper, or maybe you’ve even mastered latte art on your espresso machine. As delicious and energy-boosting coffee is, it creates a lot of waste and could be turned into coffee grounds recycling.
These grounds are usually discarded in the trash, or perhaps you might compost them. One startup has something more ambitious in mind, according to the BBC.
A couple of former business students in Glasgow, Scotland, have started a company called Revive Eco to use coffee grounds recycling as a palm oil replacement. The demand for palm oil leads to deforestation in places like Indonesia as farmers clear rainforest to make room for oil palms.
Coffee beans contain oils that could be used as a palm oil replacement and in other products like cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, even foods. These oils usually end up in a filter and are thrown out with the coffee grounds.
Revive Eco process refines these oils so that they can be used in commercial production. With their prize winnings from the Chivas Venture competition, they have the potential to change the industry. No one wants to pollute to have their daily coffee. Reclaiming the oils from coffee grounds will keep the rainforests green, which could convince more people to hang onto their spent coffee grounds instead of tossing them.
It can be difficult as a consumer to recycle without seeing any tangible benefit. Revive Eco could change the minds people, convincing them to recycle not only coffee but other food waste as they see how it improves their lives. This would be quite a feat, and all because of a simple cup of joe.
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