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Have you just woken up & blur eyed checking your emails, and my latest post, whilst drinking your 1st cup of coffee? Or are you feeling, slightly, guilty about buying a cup on the way to work? Well let me help wipe your conscious clean A Taiwanese company Singtex / S. Cafe is recycling used Coffee grounds and turning them into fabric for clothing! Using their patented process, the company recycles used coffee grounds into yarn, which is then made into durable and sustainable fabrics that resist odours and UV rays!
Feeling a bit better? Read on…
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As a caffeine and coffee-fuelled society, our addiction to Coffee yields a lot of waste. In 2008, approximately 7.6 million tons of Coffee were sold worldwide. That’s a lot of waste that usually ends up in our landfills. S. Café’s process spins the waste grounds into an odourless, fast drying fabric that also possesses UV shielding qualities.
S. Café’s process removes the phenols, esters and oils from the grounds, leaving them odourless, which they then turn into Soap! Making it a fully closed circuit with no waste. Roasted coffee has natural deodorising properties, so the fabric made from coffee yarn has great use in athletic wear, which is designed to soak up sweat. They also found that the coffee fibres are fast-drying and serve as a UV shield – all additional reasons why the fabric is the perfect match for athletic wear. So far the material has been used by The North Face, Nike, Timberland & Warcoal in Lingerie designs!
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Initially, research was conducted using used grounds from local cafes and friends. Now that the company has taken off, turnover for 2011 was £4.8 Million pounds, they have employed a coffee factory to supply more and more of the used grounds. S. Café extends the life of coffee in a totally usable way. Recycling an otherwise useless waste product has inspired the company to conduct further research, with hopes of extending the use of used coffee grounds to other products.
Coffee grounds can be used for everything from garden mulch to batteries to bio fuel — but nothing is more practical than recycling it into clothing. You can now feel less guilty when you treat yourself to your morning cup of coffee!
fashionmould 