Can you believe that trees are chopped down to end up as single-use cups, landing in the trash after just one single use? With a huge effort for production, processing and global distribution?
The planet requires that we urgently adopt the principle of circularity and saving resources in the acquisition of day-to-day products, opting for durable ones that replace single-use disposables. More and more companies nowadays choose to follow this principle. Take Kaffeeform: a German company that turns waste into a valuable resource to form beloved everyday objects.
The Kaffeeform Story
After pouring coffee, used coffee grounds land up in the trash. Kaffeeform’s founder Julian was intrigued and started to wonder: Can’t there be a way to further use this alleged waste, this resource? To conserve them, make them last? He started to experiment with the material coffee grounds, and 3 years later he found the formula to the new material – made from coffee grounds and other plant-based, renewable materials, and Kaffeeform was born.
At the beginning was the simple, but back then new idea: a new perspective on by-products usually going to waste. Reusing alleged worthless material as used coffee grounds and assigning new value to it by creating something new out of it. Breaking the mould by finding new solutions. Thus began the journey of product designer Julian Lechner: He started to experiment with coffee grounds, three years later the Kaffeeform Coffee Material was developed, a versatile material composition made from recycled coffee grounds and other plant-based, renewable resources, and Kaffeeform was born.
The classic coffee cups and the reusable Weducer Cup are a strong symbol for the new material and the underlying principle of a circular economy: Drinking coffee out of cups made from coffee – so simple, so evident, so good.
The Kaffeeform Way
It’s crucial how a product is produced. Kaffeeform produces socially and locally in Germany. In Berlin the coffee grounds are collected with an independent bike messenger collective. Parts of the production and logistics are done in collaboration with a workshop for persons with disabilities. All products are designed in Berlin, Made in Germany.
A brief history
In 2008 our founder, Julian Lechner, first had the idea to create something durable and lasting out of used coffee grounds. 2009 he started to experiment with the material coffee grounds followed by years long expert consulting, trial and error, experiments. It was not until 2015 that he found the formula to the new material based on recycled coffee grounds and other plant-based, renewable components, and with the Espresso cup hitting the market the brand and company Kaffeeform was born. 2016 the Cappuccino Cup was launched, followed by the Latte Cup and the award-winning reusable Weducer Cup in 2018. The future holds exciting new product launches, variations and collaborations – starting with new product launches in May 2021.