用咖啡渣制成的杯碟

German company Kaffeeform combines dried coffee grounds and biopolymer to create stylish-looking coffee cups and saucers that are not only durable and dishwasher-safe， but even smell a bit like coffee.

For every cup of coffee you brew， about two tablespoons of grounds wind up in the trash. That doesnt seem like a lot， but just think about the millions of coffees consumed around the world every single day， and youll start to see the problem. Sure， some of those coffee grounds are recycled as fertilizer or beauty products like face masks， but most of them end up at landfills. It was while contemplating this issue that German product designer Julian Lechner came up with a radical new and sustainable way of recycling coffee grounds—turning them into tableware.

Lechner first came up with the idea of using coffee grounds to create eco-friendly crockery while attending university in the Italian city of Bolzano. “We were always drinking coffee at university，” he remembers. “Before classes， after classes， meeting friends， hanging out at espresso bars—all the time. And thats how I started to wonder， what happens to all that coffee？ Is it all just getting thrown away？” He began consulting with his professors about ways of using coffee grounds to create a solid material， but it took him years to actually come up with a viable solution.

“We tried binding with a lot of different things，” Julian Lechner said. “We even tried sugar， but basically it was a candy cup. It just kept dissolving after being used three times.” The whole point was to make the material durable， so it was back to the drawing board for him and his partners at a German research institute. Finally， after many failed experiments， long nights and kilograms of coffee grounds， they came up with a mix of coffee grounds， wood grains and a biopolymer of cellulose， lignin， and natural resins that seemed to behave the way Julian had envisioned it when he first embarked on his quest.

“The moment of knowing the cup would actually stand was super-exciting，” he recalls. “After such a long time， you have to really believe in an idea and that it can eventually work. It was overwhelming to drink that first coffee out of the cup. It proved to be totally worth the wait.” And the fact that his creation has proven commercially successful is just the icing on the cake. Kaffeeform coffee cups and saucers are now present in ten shops across Europe， and the company can hardly keep up with demand， regularly selling out of its stock online. And theyve only been in business for a year.

“It basically all happened through word of mouth，” Lechner says about the success of his company. “Its amazing to think of some of the places where orders have come from. A lot of individuals， but also a café in Saudi Arabia， Ritz Carlton Toronto， and the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo to sell in their museum （gift shop）.”

Kaffeeform will soon launch a larger line of coffee grounds cups for cappuccino， and is also working on a travel mug. But those are just short-term plans， as Lechner hopes to one day use recycled coffee grounds to create all sorts of useful stuff. “Perhaps they could later be used for furniture in cafés and restaurants，” says he.

一家名为Kaffeeform的德国公司通过混合干的咖啡渣和生物高聚物，发明了一种新潮的咖啡杯和咖啡碟。这种咖啡杯套装不仅耐用，还可以用洗碗机清洗，闻起来甚至还带有淡淡的咖啡香。

你每泡一杯咖啡，就有两大匙的咖啡渣被扔进垃圾桶。虽然看似剩下的量很少，但是想一下每天全世界的人要消耗数百万杯的咖啡，咖啡渣带来的问题就不容小觑了。的确，一些咖啡渣被回收利用，制作成肥料或是面膜类的美容产品，但是大多数的咖啡渣都被倒入了垃圾填埋场。德国产品设计师朱利安·莱希纳在思考这个问题时，萌生了一个大胆新奇的、可持续回收咖啡渣的方法：将其变为餐具。

莱希纳在意大利波尔扎诺上大学时提出了一个设想：利用咖啡渣做环保陶器。他回忆说：“我们上大学时每天都喝咖啡，不管是上课前、下课后、跟朋友聚会时、泡咖啡吧时，我们无时无刻不在喝咖啡。所以我就开始思考，这些剩下的咖啡渣是被怎么处理的？就只能被丢掉吗？”他和教授们开始一起讨论如何把这些咖啡渣变成坚固的材料，但是他们花了几年才想到一个可行的办法。

朱利安·莱希纳说：“我们试着用不同的黏合剂，甚至尝试过用糖，但是做出来基本上是一只‘糖杯，而且用了三次之后就融化了。” 让原料变得更坚固耐用是最核心的问题，所以他和他的伙伴们又在德国一所研究所从头开始钻研。他们做了无数次失败的试验，熬了无数个漫漫长夜，在试验中用掉了无数公斤咖啡渣后，最后终于制作出了梦寐以求的材料，这种材料由咖啡渣、木材颗粒、纤维素和木质素等生物高聚物材料以及天然树脂混合而成。

莱希纳回忆说，当得知这种杯子可以站立时，他欣喜若狂。“研究了这么长时间，你就必须得相信这个想法是可行的，而且它最终可以实现。当我喝到用这种杯子泡出来的第一杯咖啡时，内心百感交集。这么久的等待没有白费。”锦上添花的是，他的发明还取得了商业上的成功。现在欧洲有十家实体店出售Kaffeeform咖啡杯具，但是仍然供不应求，公司的网店隔一段时间就会卖断货，而这些咖啡杯具才上市一年。

莱希纳谈到公司的成功时说道：“咖啡杯具的销售基本上是靠口碑的。订单来自不同的地方，有的地方的订单真的太出乎意料了。有许多个人客户购买，也有来自沙特阿拉伯的咖啡店和多伦多丽思卡尔顿酒店的订单，甚至连诺贝尔和平奖的颁发地奥斯陆的博物馆的礼品店都在出售Kaffeeform咖啡杯具。”

Kaffeeform公司很快将大量生产一款专门泡卡布奇诺的咖啡杯，同时它也可以用作旅行杯。但是这些都是短期計划，莱希纳希望未来能够用可循环利用的咖啡渣来创造出各种实用物品。他说：“或许有一天咖啡渣能够用来做咖啡馆和餐馆的家具呢。”