Recycling Coffee Grounds (Coffee Residue) as Raw Material for Textile and Yarn Dyeing

Dongdaemun-gu Utilizes Collected Coffee Grounds as New Raw Material

Certification Plaques Presented to Coffee Shops Leading Coffee Grounds Resource Circulation

Taking a Step Closer to a Carbon-Neutral Future City Dongdaemun-gu through Resource Recycling

The collected coffee grounds are processed into solid raw materials by recycling companies and used as energy sources needed for dyeing clothes or threads at nearby dyeing factories.

Dongdaemun-gu (Mayor Lee Pil-hyung) announced on the 4th that it has presented certification plaques to coffee shops within Dongdaemun-gu that are leading the resource circulation of coffee grounds (coffee residue).

The 'Coffee Grounds Resource Project' is a program that recycles coffee grounds discharged from coffee shops into various products such as solid raw materials and bioplastics. When coffee is brewed, only 0.2% of the coffee beans are used, and the remaining 99.8% is discarded as waste. If coffee grounds that are not recycled are landfilled or incinerated, greenhouse gases are generated.

Accordingly, the district established a collection and recycling system to recycle coffee grounds. In June, it signed an agreement with a recycling company, recruited coffee shops participating in the project in five local neighborhoods (Yongsin, Jegi, Cheongnyangni, Jeonnong 1, Hoegi), and began collecting coffee grounds from July. The collected coffee grounds are processed into solid raw materials by the recycling company and used as energy sources needed for dyeing clothes or threads at nearby dyeing factories.

About 4 tons of coffee grounds were collected in July from 70 coffee shops in the area. The district created and presented coffee grounds certification plaques expressing a sprout growing from a coffee bean to the participating coffee shops as a token of gratitude.

The district continues to recruit coffee shops to participate in this project, and inquiries can be made to the Dongdaemun-gu Cleaning Administration Division.

A Dongdaemun-gu official stated, “We will strive to enable more cafes to participate in the coffee grounds resource project,” and added, “We will continue to explore various resource recycling methods to achieve carbon neutrality.”