JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #147 - September/October 2022 - 49

Upcycling gives a boost to coffee waste management
More information
Main advantages of the Kreis Cup:
- 100% sustainable, reusable and recyclable: free from petroleum-based
plastics or any other environment-harming
substances. Safely biodegrades into the ground,
leaving nothing behind but nutrient-rich fertilizer for the
soil.
- Durable and break resistant: designed and engineered to
last for years in homes, coffee shops, offices, hotels or
restaurants.
- Thermal insulation: designed to keep your coffee hot
longer and your iced coffee cold until the last sip, thanks
to its double-walled insulation.
- Dishwasher safe: heat resistant.
- Lightweight: half the weight of regular reusable cups.
- Comes as a set of three products: a 415ml travel mug
with a detachable sipper lid, a 335ml cup, and a saucer to
complement the cup.
Five letters to explain simply an effi cient philosophy
you will never look the same way
again at this so common and daily
beverage. Th e Kreis Cup team
decided to fi nd a solution using
an upcycling approach, a whole
system based on waste collection,
transformation and retransformation,
to give birth to a new way of
drinking the world's third-most
consumed beverage.
Circularity at the heart of the
product development
Kreis means circle, resembling
the circular economy model
based on the regeneration of
natural materials into a sustainable
product. Th e Kreis Cup is an
alternative to disposable paper
cups and aims to replace the
end-of-life concept of used coff ee
grounds.
Given that it is the world's thirdmost
consumed beverage, coff ee
generates tonnes of waste globally.
Once the coff ee is brewed,
the coff ee grounds are discarded,
making up a signifi cant amount
of food waste generated on a
recurring basis. In fact, it is estimated
that every year, the world
generates a quarter-million
tonnes of coff ee grounds - a
staggering amount of which
just gets thrown in a landfi ll or
dumped in the oceans. However,
these grounds can be reused and
upcycled rather cleverly.
Made exclusively
using coffee waste and
a bio-polymer binder
Th e Kreis Cup is a biodegradable
and reusable cup made from used
coff ee grounds and plant-based
materials, free of petroleum-based
plastics. It is heat resistant and
designed to keep your coff ee hot
longer. Designed to champion a
circular economy, the Kreis Cup
is made from spent coff ee grounds
that have been dried,
treated,
and then suspended in a natural,
plant-based polymer. Th e result
does not just look as rich as your
More information:
www.coffeekreis.com
coff ee grounds, but it has a faint,
unmistakable smell of coff ee. Th e
polymer that holds the grounds
together is also food-safe, heat
resistant, and incredibly resilient,
unlike ceramic cups/mugs that
shatt er as soon as they hit the fl oor.
By using used coff ee grounds
collected from local coff ee shops,
restaurants, offi ces and hotels,
the Kreis Cup model will recycle
millions of tonnes of coff ee waste
that otherwise end up in landfi lls,
causing numerous problems such
as the production of greenhouse
gases and acidic leachate, which
can damage the surrounding soil.
Circularity and waste enhancement are
at the heart of the manufacturing process
The Kreis Way's recycle program is intended to collect Kreis Cups at the end
of their life span and repurpose them into new cups, never touching the landfi ll
N°147 September - October 2022 / jec composites magazine
49
http://www.coffeekreis.com
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #147 - September/October 2022

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