I love to drink coffee. Me &my son enjoy exploring different companies and variety of coffee. But never had i heard that coffee could be used as a fabric. First developed by taiwanese company in 2008,the use of coffee grounds to make clothes was a breakthrough. Consider your morning cup of coffee. To produce it only 0.2 percent of the coffee bean is used. The remaining 99.8 percent becomes coffee grounds and is most likely to be thrown away, never to be seen again for the last decade, Taiwanese company Singtex has made a fortune from those grounds,creating fabric out of coffee waste. One t-shirt can be made with three cups of coffee grounds. Third generation Taiwanese textile maker Jason Chen was sitting at Starbucks with his wife Amy when they saw some old ladies collecting coffee grounds. This led them to the idea of creating odour free textile over 13 years ago. The fabric is made from the waste product that is left over after making coffee. The used coffee grounds usually just end up in a landfill. So this recycling process is truly ethical and responsible. The coffee grounds are processed to make them into yarn which is them woven into naturally high tech fabric.
Today singtex is known all over the world for mixing coffee ground with polyester from recycled plastic bottles to make a fibre perfect for sports wear. The coffee component of the textile eliminates odours, protects from ultraviolet rays and is also waterproof. Big apparel label such as Adidas, North face, Patagonia as well as niche brands like Rumix use coffee ground fabric from singtex in their clothing & shoes. The Company has a strict recycling system and uses natural gas instead of coal.
Also Oil is extracted from the leftover bean and is sold to cosmetic and soap companies. Coffee ground fabric is also utilised to make waterproof film and foam pads over the years, singtex has become a model of sustainability in Taiwan.
Fashion on mind 