This article was originally published by CBS correspondent Ian Lee
FINLAND (CBS) From biofuel to recycled cups, coffee waste is turned into all sorts of things these days. But a Finnish company is creating something new: coffee-based sneakers.
Rens used a Kickstarter fund to prepare his waterproof sneakers using old coffee grounds. “We actually took it and mixed it with recycled plastic pellets made from used water bottles,” said Jesse Tran, co-founder and CEO of the company.
It takes a little more than a cup of used coffee beans to make a pair of shoes. This translates to 21 cups of joe. “The upper part is mostly coffee scraps,” Tran said.
Globally, we produce more than 23 million tons of coffee waste every year, according to Belgian sustainability researcher Gunter Pauli. And when it breaks down, it produces methane, a greenhouse gas that experts say is about 30 times more harmful than CO2.
“We actually realized that only 5% of coffee waste in the world was actually recycled,” Tran said.
Son Chu, co-founder and CTO of Rens, said, “We want to be a brand where we make products that are sustainable, but they’re cool, they have really cool functions, people can actually use them.”
The Finnish shoe company said it plans to use coffee grounds to create more portable waste, including sportswear.