Seongdong-gu Starts Collecting Coffee Grounds as Eco-Friendly Fuel to Reduce Carbon Emissions

On the 27th, Hyundai Oilbank and Poien establish a coffee grounds collection system and produce biofuel... Proactive and preemptive steps to reduce carbon emissions in response to the 2050 carbon neutrality declaration through public-private cooperation

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Seongdong-gu (Mayor Jeong Won-oh) signed a "Coffee Grounds Collection and Recycling Business Agreement" on the 27th with Hyundai Oilbank (CEO Kang Dal-ho, Joo Young-min) and Poien (CEO Lee Ho-cheol).

According to this agreement, the district will encourage coffee shops in the area to participate in coffee grounds collection, Hyundai Oilbank will provide available land as an intermediate collection hub, and Poien will handle the collection.

Additionally, the collected coffee grounds will be recycled into eco-friendly fuel through Poien, which possesses innovative technology, and will be primarily supplied for use as fuel in boilers operating factory equipment at Hyundai Oilbank’s refining and chemical plants.

Coffee grounds, commonly called "coffee residue," are by-products generated when making coffee. Generally, 99.8% of the coffee beans used to make one cup of Americano become coffee grounds. With the recent increase in coffee demand and expanded coffee bean consumption, the amount of coffee grounds?which account for only 0.2% of coffee extraction?has also increased. It is known that the discarded amount reached approximately 150,000 tons annually as of 2019.

Last June, the district pursued a technical agreement with Poien, a local social venture possessing coffee grounds recycling technology, to establish a plan to recycle coffee grounds, which have high carbon content and high calorific value per unit, making them an infinitely promising renewable energy source.

In July, a status survey was conducted on about 500 coffee shops in the area, and collection participation was confirmed with Daerim Warehouse, Blue Bottle, and Cafe Onion (in alphabetical order). The Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Seongdong-gu Ordinance on Resource Saving and Recycling Promotion was also amended ('21.7.) to provide a legal basis for the project.

As the first in Seoul, the district is also taking swift steps by signing an agreement with the local social cooperative "Resources and Circulation" to establish a specialized coffee grounds collection system using information and communication technology (ICT). Partnering with a company that possesses innovative technology capable of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by about 1.7 tons per ton of fuel made from coffee grounds, the district plans to actively reduce carbon emissions.

Park Ki-chul, Head of Sales at Hyundai Oilbank, said, "Coffee grounds, which were previously treated as waste, will be transformed into eco-friendly biomass energy sources," and added, "We are also considering expanding the cooperation model with Seongdong-gu nationwide."

Jeong Won-oh, Mayor of Seongdong-gu, stated, "Seongdong-gu’s coffee grounds recycling project is a proactive and preemptive initiative by a local government responding to the 2025 ban on landfill acceptance of metropolitan area household waste and the 2050 carbon neutrality declaration under the UN Climate Change Convention," and added, "We will continue to actively strive to create various public-private cooperation models to promote recycling."