Innovative products from recycled coffee
For far too long, surplus and valuable resources have been wasted and thrown away in food production because we didn't see any additional value for them. This wasting economy not only comes with immense social and economic costs, but also has a serious impact on our environment. While food waste is sent to landfills with no further benefit, it generates almost as many greenhouse gas emissions worldwide as the U.S. or China.
That's why players along the entire value chain began years ago to look for a use for their byproducts generated during food production. The goal is a sustainable
circular economy, but still countless surpluses and by-products are thrown away because they are expired, inedible or seemingly worthless. At LEROMA, we want to raise awareness for the opportunities and benefits that waste products can provide, for example by giving them to alternative industries such as the cosmetics or pharmaceutical industry.
For this purpose, we start today with a series of articles that show known and new uses for your residual materials and will find their place in LEROMA`s magazine again and again in the future. Let's start with coffee.
The use of coffee surpluses and by-products
Coffee is the Germans' favorite hot beverage and is consumed almost daily by the majority of consumers. Last year, per capita consumption was around 166 liters, and the trend is growing.
The beverage is made from the seeds of the coffee plant, the coffee beans. They are considered as the most valuable component of the plant and are found in the so-called coffee cherry, which is already discarded during the harvest. During the processing and roasting of the coffee beans, several protective layers that tightly enclose the coffee beans are also removed, including the silver skin.
The use of coffee surpluses and by-products
The silver skins are either removed directly in the field or are a by-product of the coffee bean roasting process.
Every year, 43,000 tons of silver skins are discarded or burned worldwide, but researchers have now realized that the composition offers great potential for health-promoting extracts. Silver skins contain non-toxic phenols that have an antioxidant effect. Because of the phenols they contain, extracts from silver skin can reduce cell inflammation caused by obesity, for example, by stimulating lipolysis, the breakdown of fat, and thus blocking fat accumulation in adipocytes, fat-storing cells. The extracts are obtained by methanol, ethanol or warm water extraction, with ethanol extracts having a particularly high antioxidant content and antimicrobial potential.
Besides phenols, silver skin contains proteins and 60% dietary fiber. This makes them a potential ingredient for food supplements. For example, they can increase the nutritional value of baked goods, but produce a somewhat grainy texture if no structural changes are made before use.
In addition, silver skins can be converted into pellets. To do this, they are heated strongly at low oxygen levels and mixed with plastics or other additives. The pellets are already being used to form vehicle parts that are 20% lighter and have significantly better thermal properties than some materials currently in use. In addition, the molding process costs less energy. According to a study in 2018, silver skins are also suitable for 3D printing and plastic injection molding, but they are not yet widely used for this purpose.
If the silver skins need to be crushed for further processing, they should be dried beforehand, as moisture has a direct impact on the degree of fineness of the final product. However, this mainly concerns the skins that are a by-product of the roasting process. Skins that have already been removed beforehand can generally be crushed without an intermediate step.
Not only the silver skin, but also the coffee grounds that are left behind after brewing coffee have many uses.
More than 20 million tons of coffee grounds are leftovers in Germany every year, and the majority still ends up in the trash. This is despite the fact that there are countless opportunities to process it into valuable products. Coffee roasters, restaurants and cafés in particular waste large quantities of this by-product, which could be passed on to alternative industries.
Coffee grounds are often used to enrich fertilizers and growing media because of the many nutrients they contain, such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. It increases the pH value of the soil and is therefore particularly suitable for acid-loving plants. In addition, coffee grounds can be used in the pharmaceutical industry as a pesticide without chemical additives, because they are toxic to many snails and their smell neutralizes the tracks that ants lay for orientation.
The use of coffee grounds also offers many possibilities in the cosmetics industry. The containing caffeine has a dehydrating effect that removes excess fluid from adipocytes (fat cells) and thus improves the appearance of the skin, for example in the form of cellulite creams. In addition, caffeine stimulates blood circulation in the skin, which is why coffee grounds are good in eye creams against dark circles and puffiness, as well as natural soap, among other things. It is also suitable for cellulite, facial and lip peelings. The peeling effect comes from the coffee granules it contains. Thus, peelings made from coffee grounds have an advantage over conventional products because the rough consistency has a natural origin and is not produced by artificial additives such as microplastics. In addition, the production is simple and inexpensive, because the coffee grounds are usually only mixed with a little sugar and oil. The coffee grounds can also be processed with a bit of water to make hair conditioners, which, due to the caffeine they contain, strengthen the hair, let it shine and push for growth.
In addition to the positive properties of coffee grounds, the smell of coffee, which is inherent in all products, is also attractive to numerous consumers. Coffee grounds have a strong aroma and are therefore just as suitable as fresh coffee powder as an odor neutralizer.
In addition to nutrients and caffeine, coffee grounds also contain oil and cellulose. The oil can be extracted and used in the food and pharmaceutical industries as an alternative to palm oil, among other things, as it largely contains the same components. The cellulose it contains makes coffee grounds a suitable additive in paper production. The cleaning industry can also use it as an additive for ecological cleaning agents such as scouring milk, as coffee grounds dissolve stubborn deposits when combined with hot water. It can also be used in the production of paint or as a coloring agent. Furthermore, fuel has already been made from coffee grounds, wood-like blocks that emit an aromatic scent when burned. For this purpose, the coffee grounds are combined with sawdust, for example. However, the residual product can also be dried and used directly as fuel without being processed further. There are also shoes made from coffee grounds and recycled plastic that are waterproof and odor-resistant, and a German company has been selling mugs and cups made from coffee grounds, oils, cellulose fibers and recycled wood chips for years, the latter creating a marbled surface.
The range of possible uses seems almost infinite. The coffee grounds and the coffee silver skins can even be mixed together and be used for example, as a breeding ground for growing edible mushrooms.
The opportunities highlighted for the use of coffee byproducts illustrate the impact that cross-sector collaboration can have. It is the vision of Marina, the founder of LEROMA, that passing on raw materials, surpluses and residues becomes an everyday practice and that together we create a sustainable circular economy. With the surplus exchange, we provide you with an important tool. It offers a great opportunity to find potential customers for your leftovers!
Let’s simplify the future of change!
