LOBAL PRODUCTION What G creates in excess of 23 million tons of waste per year, according to Goes sustainability researcher Gunter Pauli, from the pulp of fresh coffee cherries

through the packaging that brings the

Around... roasted beans to your favorite . How Coffee Waste Is At the consumer end of the supply chain, used coffee grounds are the most

Fueling a Circular Economy visible example of this waste, the bit

by Duncan Pike we dump in the bin after making each

fresh brew.

Most coffee lovers don’t give much

thought to their spent grounds,

but these black, sodden remains of

pulverized coffee seeds have inspired

the freshly caffeinated imaginations

of scientists, entrepreneurs and social

innovators from Melbourne to London

to Seoul, sprouting into ideas of real The nonprofit Ground to Ground has enlisted the help of numerous to collect and distribute used coffee grounds. consequence for the coffee industry. Photo by Shane Genziuk

continued on page 94

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SUSTAINABILITY AND THE ECONOMY

Across the world, companies, researchers and engaged consumers are pioneering the next era of environmental sustainability. Enabled by policy changes and innovative technologies, a new paradigm known as the circular economy is emerging, one that holds the promise of reshaping the global economy and transforming our relationship with the natural world—the coffee tree very much included. The aim of the circular economy is to close the loop of our industrial system, reducing resource consumption and environmental pollution by transforming waste into input material for the next stage of production. “Sustainability has evolved significantly from the late 1990s to now,” says Nina Goodrich, executive director of GreenBlue, a nonprofit based in Charlottesville, Virginia, dedicated to the sustainable use of materials. “The most difficult aspect of sustainability has been integrating this into your business strategy, and the circular economy provides a better framework to help companies do that.” The simplest way to reuse used coffee grounds is to them. | Photo by Shane Genziuk

The circular economy traces its origins back to “We have to move the 1970s, but it is only in the past few years that the concept has taken off, driven in large part by the away from what work of the U.K.-based Ellen MacArthur Foundation. folks call our linear As Goodrich explains it, a circular economy is based on the recognition that “we have to move away from economy of take- what folks call our linear economy of take-make- make-waste and waste and envision a next life for what currently is our waste. … It’s about how we build and make envision a next life things so that one person’s waste becomes another person’s input materials.” Photo courtesy of GreenBlue for what currently Over the past several decades, nongovernmental is our waste. … It’s organizations have gradually succeeded in persuading businesses to adopt a variety of about how we build and make things so sustainable practices that ultimately transformed that one person’s waste becomes another the specialty coffee industry. In 2012, for example, 40 percent of global was produced in person’s input materials.” compliance with a voluntary sustainability standard, up from 15 percent in 2008, according to the State —Nina Goodrich, GreenBlue of Sustainability Initiatives, an organization that reports on global sustainability projects. continued on page 96

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Waste coffee grounds have a high calorific value, meaning they produce a relatively large amount of energy when burned. | Photo courtesy of bio-bean

At the same time, the way for-profit businesses view REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE sustainability has shifted. What began as a somewhat radical concept has evolved into a set of pragmatic managerial practices Shane Genziuk is founder of Ground to Ground, a social enterprise aligned with corporate objectives, something businesses of all sizes based in Melbourne, Australia, that educates coffee lovers about the have, for the most part, embraced. myriad wonders of used coffee grounds and connects them to cafes Transitioning to a circular economy will be a bigger challenge, that bag used grounds for easy pickup. He estimates he’s signed up but just as the global specialty coffee sector pioneered the adoption nearly 1,000 cafes, working in partnership with affiliates in London of sustainable production practices, it now stands poised to lead the and Austin, Texas. food sector in closing the loop of production to reduce resource costs Genziuk—who has a full-time job and a young family, and is and environmental damage. This concern for the environmental completing a Ph.D. in business administration—runs Ground to impact of coffee production isn’t just altruism or public spirit. Ground on passion and copious levels of . He is acutely Climate change and accompanying public concern present a real aware of the waste that goes into making his favorite drink, and threat to the viability of the coffee industry, and consumers are he wants to make a difference by leading a movement for social increasingly concerned about the environmental and social impacts change. When you educate consumers about the environmental of the coffee they consume. impact of coffee production, he says, they typically recognize their Clearly these challenges are multi-faceted and won’t be resolved own contributions to the global problem and, in turn, are motivated by any single movement, no matter how expansive, but adopting to become part of the solution. a circular economic business model, and thus reducing waste and Ground to Ground is, at its heart, an effort to encourage greater alleviating the environmental impacts of non-sustainably sourced recycling and reduce waste. Genziuk distributes educational input materials, could make a significant impact. Fortunately, material on his website and in person to cafes on the numerous and scientists, entrepreneurs and coffee lovers around the world are diverse uses for coffee grounds, such as compost, de-icing material, creating innovative ways to move the industry forward. continued on page 98

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Biomass pellets made from waste coffee grounds. | Photo courtesy of bio-bean

hair dye and skin exfoliator, among others. Participating cafes agree to bag used grounds and offer them to customers free of charge, helping to divert organic waste from the landfill while sparking greater awareness about sustainability and the impact of individual consumption on the environment.

MOVING BEYOND RECYCLING

According to Zhu Dajian, director of the Institute of Governance for Sustainable Development at Tongji University in Shanghai, The new 20,000-square-foot bio-bean waste coffee recycling factory in London. Photo courtesy of bio-bean initiatives like Ground to Ground are important, but insufficient as a response to global environmental challenges. What sets the circular economy apart is the imperative not just to reduce impact, but to create new value while doing so. Only in this way can the shift away from the linear economy be realized. Dajian helped to create a circular economy strategy for the Chinese central government, which is struggling to manage the environmental damage produced by its rapid industrialization. The circular economy, he says, is “a new economic model that will reduce environmental impact and at the same time provide new jobs.” One of the key ideas of the circular economy draws its

GreenBlue educates the public about composting at the Charlottesville City Market inspiration from industrial ecology, which studies the flow of in Virginia. The nonprofit started the first composting program in the city to take material and energy through industrial systems in a manner kitchen scraps, including used coffee grounds, to a local industrial composter. Photo courtesy of GreenBlue continued on page 100

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analogous to the natural ecosystem. Just as nature factory is designed to turn waste coffee into biodiesel, barbecue wastes nothing, recycling nutrients in a closed loop, so coals and biomass pellets. The company is even exploring the proponents of the circular economy aim to make use of all possibility of selling these pellets back to coffee shops to be waste as input for further value creation, doing away with used to roast coffee or boil water, which would create a true the idea of unwanted byproducts. circular economy, with waste becoming the input power for the In recent years, there has been a surge of companies production activities that created it. using coffee waste—both used grounds and discarded Biofuel produced from used coffee grounds is referred to coffee cherry pulp—to create new products, including as “second generation,” meaning it isn’t made from crops that paper, flour, 3D printer filament, charcoal, textiles and could otherwise be used as food. In a world of food scarcity, numerous others. One of the most widely touted examples where the production of fuel from corn and sugar cane has is bio-bean, a London firm that has attracted considerable led to skyrocketing food prices for the world’s poorest, second media and investor attention for its plan to collect waste generation biofuels are particularly promising. coffee grounds from the city’s cafes and convert them into biofuels. The concept is based on research from the THE CHALLENGES OF University of Nevada, which analyzed used grounds for oil content and found they contained on average about 10 to WASTE COLLECTION 15 percent oil by weight. Bio-bean is the first company in the world to Bio-bean recently partnered with Network Rail, which owns industrialize this process, and recently opened a and manages the U.K.’s railway network, to collect the coffee 20,000-square-foot factory in north London capable of waste generated by its six biggest stations. These sorts of processing 50,000 metric tons (about 55,000 tons) of partnerships will be crucial as companies strive to create used coffee grounds per year—about one-tenth the waste products from used coffee grounds, because unlike other grounds from all the coffee consumed in the U.K. The continued on page 102

U.K.-based bio-bean collects waste coffee grounds from hundreds of locations. | Photo courtesy of bio-bean

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agricultural commodities, where processing and waste cafes have signed up to have their coffee waste production takes place in a central location, coffee grounds are collected, saving them money and providing bio- used and disposed of in thousands of locations dispersed across bean with free input material for its production a wide area. process. Genziuk says this has been one of the largest barriers to Whether or not this sort of collection his own enterprise, and he’s not sure the economics can be method is scalable remains to be seen. London resolved. For him, that’s not necessarily a deal-breaker. is one of the most densely populated cities in “Maybe the idea isn’t to get rich out of it,” he says, “it’s the developed world, making this method of just to do the right thing by society.” collection relatively economical. With coffee

A scanning electron microscope (SEM) image shows what coffee looks like at high Of course, the circular economy isn’t being promoted being produced in thousands of different pots magnification once it has been activated to capture methane. | Photos by Wang- by organizations such as the World Economic Forum strictly and machines throughout a city, the dream of Geun Lee because of its potential to do right by society; it is also a putting all coffee waste to good use still faces massive economic opportunity. A 2014 report by the global enormous obstacles. management consulting firm McKinsey & Company suggested Changing public policy could help. Genziuk the adoption of circular economic principles could lead to notes that cafes in Melbourne pay for waste savings in materials costs exceeding $1 trillion a year by 2025. collection by the bin rather than by weight. For its part, bio-bean is doing its best to prove Genziuk “If they throw out 100 kilos, they pay the wrong. In addition to partnering with Network Rail, the same as if they throw out 5 kilos,” he says. “In company has partnered with recycling company First Mile the U.K. it’s different. They pay by weight, to run a coffee ground collection service, sending a van to and that influences behavior. Our system is pick up grounds from cafes in central London. The cafes give geared up for volume of waste, and there’s no

It’s easy to create vermicast—or worm Arthur Kay, CEO of bio-bean bio-bean the grounds free of charge, as they would otherwise disincentive for generating waste, so they tend manure—from coffee grounds using something Photo courtesy of bio-bean have to pay disposal fees (which are based on weight) to have to have wasteful practices.” The renewable energy company bio-bean conducts extensive research and development into uses for as simple as a tower of old car tires. waste coffee. | Photo courtesy of bio-bean Photo by Shane Genziuk the grounds carted to landfills. To date, around 100 London continued on page 104

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Dajian agrees that governments can play a role in changing economic behavior and encouraging the adoption of circular “If raw materials are cheaper than economic practices. secondary materials, it’s not possible “If raw materials are cheaper than secondary materials, I think it’s not possible to make the linear economy into a closed loop,” he to make the linear economy into a says. He advocates a tax on raw materials and subsidies for pilot closed loop.” projects and businesses that are putting circular economic models into practice and looking to scale. — Zhu Dajian Institute of Governance for COFFEE GROUNDS AND Sustainable Development, Shanghai GREENHOUSE GASES

Bio-bean’s innovation has been to extract the value from the leftover oil and combustible material in used coffee grounds. Meanwhile, researchers in South Korea have found value in the absorbency that allows grounds to retain oil in the first place. In a recent paper in the scientific journal Nanotechnology, Christian Kemp and his fellow researchers at South Korea’s Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology show that heating, or activating, used coffee grounds using potassium hydroxide (i.e., lye) creates a new material with high surface area and the ability to store large amounts of methane. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, 84 times more potent as a warming agent than carbon dioxide. When returned to room trunk, a dangerous and heavy storage system. This limits the appeal, temperature, the material created from the used grounds is stable at least in the United States, for buses and heavy trucks. and retains methane, meaning it could be used for long-term storage The activated coffee material has the potential to remove these of greenhouse gases produced in industrial processes. limitations. Because it stores methane at such low pressure, it Kemp is a South African physical chemist with a focus in doesn’t need to be shaped into a conventional round metal tube to material science. His primary interest is in environmentally friendly prevent the gas from exploding. It can be molded into any shape materials with catalytic or gas absorption properties. Scientists desired, even eliminating the need for a gas tank. around the world in this field are using sophisticated production “We can build the gas storage into the contours of the car,” methods to create high-tech materials that can absorb and store the says Kemp. “Because it’s malleable, it doesn’t need to fit to strict gases responsible for heating our atmosphere—including carbon dimensions.” dioxide and methane. These novel compounds have demonstrated The findings already have attracted attention from companies breakthroughs in storing gas, but the starting materials are interested in the potential application in lithium ion batteries, the enormously expensive, which could limit their widespread adoption. technology that powers laptops and smartphones. Just as the nano- Kemp was working on one such project when he was forced to scale pores in the activated coffee grounds capture methane atoms, rethink his approach. Unsure of how to move forward, he did what the material also can be used to capture lithium ions. many of us do: He sat down for a cup of coffee with his colleagues. For Kemp, it’s all in keeping with his “one Earth” philosophy. The coffee worked its magic, and the scientists landed on the idea to “We only have one Earth,” he says, “so we should at least try our try using the coffee grounds as their input material. best to recycle what we have, and use it in an appropriate manner and They combined the grounds (Kirkland brand, 100 percent not just waste as much as possible.” Colombian coffee, dark roast, fine ground) with lye, then activated When it comes to coffee, Dajian notes that only a small fraction the mixture at 800 degrees C (1,472 degrees F) for an hour in a of the material used and produced by the industry ends up in the furnace. Turns out, that’s all it takes to make coffee capable of cup; the remainder, from the skin of the coffee cherry at origin to capturing the gas. The process is simple, Kemp says, and the cost for the grounds left after brewing, ends up as waste. Reducing this input material is next to nothing. massive output of waste, and ultimately achieving a true circular Researchers have used other organic materials, including corn economy, will take decades of work and the efforts of many—from cobs and cocoa husks, to do something similar, but, Kemp says, entrepreneurs and scientists to coffee roasters and coffee lovers—but “coffee is just so good at absorbing the moisture and absorbing the the tide does seem to be turning. lye that the process was easier to do compared with other materials.” Kemp also sees the material as a potential medium for storing methane in natural-gas-powered vehicles, which produce far fewer DUNCAN PIKE is a freelance writer and Master of Global Affairs graduate from greenhouse gases than traditional vehicles. In cars currently running the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs. Follow Duncan on Twitter on natural gas, the gas is contained in a large metal tank in the at @dpjpike.

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