|
|
Paper motorcycles and sneakers made from coffee grounds are adding more arcs to the circular economy.
Cake, a Swedish maker of electric motorcycles, has partnered with PaperShell, a Swedish firm that turns cellulose fiber from wood and other plant material into a composite that can be molded into shapes that can replace plastic or some metals.
In tests, PaperShell’s composite has shown to be as weather-resistant as conventional plastics and as strong as fiberglass and similar materials.
The cellulose compound leaves a carbon footprint eight times smaller than polypropylene plastics and almost 50 times smaller than fiberglass, according to the company’s calculations, and can be recycled with existing processes.
Cake’s plan is to commercialize a bike by 2025 that replaces as many plastic parts as possible with PaperShell’s composite, and perhaps some metal as well.
The two founders of Rens Originals wanted to make sneakers out of cotton but became drawn to the idea of spinning coffee grounds into a yarn when they learned that 95 percent of the world’s coffee grounds wind up in trash.
The two were born in Vietnam, the world’s second largest coffee producer, and live in Finland, which has the world’s highest per-capita coffee consumption.
Their backgrounds were in sustainability work and e-commerce and both had noticed the carbon and other kinds of waste that the sport shoe industry leaves behind.
A supplier sends them coffee grounds from convenience stores in China, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The grounds are mixed with the plastic pellets from recycled beverage bottles and the blend is spun into a yarn that makes the sneakers’ uppers.
The same yarn is used in the company’s new hoodies that hold waste from 43 cups of coffee and 13 drink bottles, it says.
So far, Rens has sold 30,000 pairs of sneakers, recycled grounds from 750,000 cups of coffee, and repurposed 250,000 beverage bottles, the company figures.
TRENDPOST: The circular economy is a new focus of economic innovation, where creativity and commitment to reducing the world’s ever-growing stream of garbage combine to create new processes, new industries, and new opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors.
Now seen largely as a quirky indulgence by do-gooders with a technical bent, the “recycled economy” will be recognized as a critical economic sector by 2030 as materials become more costly, waste becomes harder and more costly to deal with, and a new generation of environmentally-conscious consumers matures.