Study visit, Kaffe Bueno

Katarzyna Czop News

Many of us are drinking more than one cup of coffee every day. In 2018, nine billon kilos of coffee were consumed worldwide. The waste – coffee grounds – typically ends up mixed in with all our other waste, ending the loop for coffee there, and creating greenhouse gas emissions.

But for Kaffee Bueno, the lifecycle of coffee doesn’t end after you drink it. Thanks to their process, this is just the beginning of a new cycle.

Kaffee Bueno was set up in Copenhagen to collect coffee grounds from cafes and transform this waste into into valuable compounds (or ‘nutraceuticals’) which can be used as ingredients in personal care productsand food. The end-products include coffee oil and coffee flour etc. can be reused in both local supply chains as well as industrial processes.

For every tonne of coffee grounds recycled by Kaffee Bueno, 340 m3 of methane emissions into the atmosphere are avoided.

Kaffe Bueno were one of the businesses who addressed the Baltic Circular Procurement Congress on 2-3rd September. Read more about other Alternative Business Models for the Circular Economy (or see the summary version here).