Turning Coffee Waste Into A Circular Economy With Valuable Economic Opportunities For The Global South – CoffeeTalk

The Global South, home to over 3 billion cups of coffee consumed daily, faces challenges such as lower yields, soil acidification, and increased costs that discourage young growers from entering the sector. However, transforming the coffee supply chain into a circular model can help reduce environmental impacts and develop new products and revenue streams. The sector produces 40 million tonnes of waste per year, with 95-99% of the byproducts being used in sectors like cosmetics, food production, biochar, and renewable energy. Africa generates 72% of the coffee waste in producing regions.

The International Coffee Organisation (ICO) emphasizes the importance of rethinking the idea that value only comes from coffee beans. Transforming waste into new products and energy sources unlocks major revenue and employment opportunities while reducing costs. A recent ICO report, Beyond Coffee: Towards a Circular Coffee Economy, focuses on this untapped potential, discussing case studies, concrete data, and recommendations to future-proof the sector by integrating circular economy principles and regenerative agricultural practices.

The C4CEC, in collaboration with experts from the sector, academia, and strategic partners, compiled best practices in the coffee supply chain that can be accessed through its channels. As a pre-competitive platform, the Center aims to support the whole coffee community, aiming to reduce environmental impacts and increase growers’ income. It is open to producers, local growers, roasters, associations, institutions, and research institutes interested in supporting circular and sustainable pilot projects to create an accessible global knowledge network.

In line with the Kenyan government’s Coffee Development and Marketing Strategy 2024-2029, the Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT) is researching four by-product enhancement areas: food, biofuels, biofertilizers, and materials. The most promising applications include using cascara to make flour, tea, syrup, drinks, substrates for mushroom production, and the creation of construction and packaging materials.

One of the byproducts with an established market involves the transformation of coffee skins into pellets, which are estimated to be used for the production of briquettes. Cutting-edge projects use coffee waste to produce biochar and create new absorbent biobased materials for water treatment, as coffee skins can remove pollutants such as heavy metals and dyes from wastewater.

Creating a market for coffee by-products is another key step in building a resilient and sustainable coffee industry. Collaboration with startups and farmers in coffee-producing countries, encouraging farms to reuse by-products through financial incentives, and facilitating the delivery of these by-products to other production chains can help mitigate climate change and create new revenue sources for local communities.

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