bio-bean Limited introduces Inficaf: a new, sustainable raw material made from upcycled spent coffee grounds. From bioplastics to automotive friction, and from cosmetics to textiles and more, Inficaf offers versatility across a wide variety of industries to displace virgin or synthetic materials whilst also reducing waste.
Matt Keal Photography
bio-bean creates Inficaf from spent coffee grounds collected from UK businesses at every scale, including coffee shops, office blocks, airports and instant coffee manufacturers. Using the existing logistics infrastructure to reduce road miles, the Cambridgeshire-based company takes in the grounds at its recycling facility where it processes over 7,000 tonnes of spent grounds every year. When the grounds arrive, bio-bean processes and dries them to requirement before sieving and packing them up for innovative, new commercial and industrial applications.
Inficaf is consistent in particle size, moisture content and bulk density. Its characteristics make it adaptable for businesses seeking to create transformative change.
For example, Inficaf is a valuable, sustainable filler for plant-based polymers, replacing traditional mineral fillers. It can also be used as a filler for traditional plastics and composites, displacing the use of virgin petrochemicals.
Alternatively, from an exfoliant in cosmetics and skincare products to bio-based printing inks or fibres in textiles, Inficaf offers endless possibilities for sustainable product innovations.
Inficaf’s versatility enables product developers, designers, and manufacturers around the world to lead in their category by incorporating a truly sustainable raw material which helps to reduce waste and greenhouse gas emissions.
The world drinks approximately 2.5 billion cups of coffee every day, creating an estimated 18 million tonnes of spent coffee grounds every year. Typically, those spent coffee grounds are sent to landfill or anaerobic digestion, neither of which make use of the residual value within this resource.
However, by diverting spent coffee grounds from landfill and instead upcycling them for reuse in a circular economy, bio-bean’s Inficaf reduces waste and subsequent greenhouse gas emissions, not to mention driving behaviour change and helping the world to rethink ‘waste’.
Inficaf is bio-bean’s latest innovation made from spent coffee grounds. The coffee recycling company has been maximising the value of spent grounds since 2013 and has other coffee-based sustainable bio-products on the market, including a natural coffee extract for food and beverage manufacturing.