As shown in recent surveys, coffee ground waste has become one of the major organic wastes across the globe but largely under aware by the public. Re.Bean furniture project by Kristen Wang aims to explore innovative design solutions to reutilise this waste material and to transform it into a truly biodegradable furniture based on intensive researches and experimentations on its physicality and materiality.
The development and produce processes have always been aiming for:
- Recyclable and biodegradable: recycling waste hessian coffee bean bag and coffee ground waste with natural binding from animal waste, making the entire material fully biodegradable
- Reusable: mould pouring method is used to enhance reusability during the production
- Ecological: coffee ground waste is collected locally, processed locally and remake locally
This project not only seeks to make a manifesto of a creative design solution that how designers can (and should) help to cope with waste problems. Additionally, it also tries to raise public’s awareness towards the environmental issues of coffee industry waste. Through its coffee smell, unique sense of tactile and production process, it is revealing how our daily waste from coffee beverages can be transformed into a daily used furniture object.
