To help reduce pollution caused by single-use plastic, Vietnamese company AirXCoffee has created coffee mugs and other tableware from used coffee grounds. The coffee grounds are collected from local coffee shops, dried, and mixed with recycled materials, starch, cellulose, wood, natural resins, waxes, and oils. The resulting coffee composite is bio-based, recyclable, light, with a smell of coffee and the look of dark wood.
"The new material is more competitive than the traditional plastic. With 10% cheaper in price than oil-based plastic, coffee bio-composite [material] is expected to help Vietnamese plastic industry to have better competitiveness in the global market. It also helps Vietnam to reduce reliance on fossil-based materials," Thanh Le, founder of AirXCoffee, explained. He added that coffee ground is plentiful in Vietnam. The country is the world's second-biggest coffee exporter. “Vietnam is the best place for us to produce this world's first coffee bio-composite," Le said.
Meanwhile, the academe also gave the new environmentally friendly drink containers the thumbs up. "Billions of disposable plastics already polluting city sidewalks and potentially entering our rivers and oceans. We urgently need an eco-friendly option to avoid making a massive impact on our environment," said Professor Phu Huynh, dean of the Faculty of Material, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology.
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