From growing green beans to roasting beans, coffee goes through many stages before it becomes a cup of drink. Since its first wave of popularity in 13th century, coffee is now the second largest commodity for trade in the world, with oil occupying the first place. There are 50 coffee producing countries and 125 million working population in coffee industry, which produce 80 billion dollars in revenue per year. Tens of thousands people consume 2 billion cups of coffee in total everyday, and coffee estates around the globe raise 28 million families of coffee farmers.

Erna Knutsen, the mother of specialty coffee, also the founder of SCAA, is a legend of coffee industry who led the revolution that expands our imagination of coffee drink. She first brought out the term “specialty coffee” in 1974, calling for an elevation of coffee quality. Ms. Knutsen ceaselessly promotes the idea of specialty coffee till today, and insists that different flavors of coffee be produced from different origins.

“Having a cup of coffee only creates value for 0.2% of the biomass, leaving the rest of 99.8% rotting.” Gunter Pauli, the advocate of Blue Economy, once made the comment above. But with the idea of Blue Economy, we can always do more than we used to imagine. For example, we can grow mushroom with coffee wastes, creating more value with the biomass involved in the making of coffee. The change deserves a name: Blue Revolution. When we talk about Blue Economy, we not only mean environmental-friendliness, but how to renew things, turning wastes into gold again.

Statistics show that in Taiwan, with its 23 million population, 6 million cups of coffee are consumed everyday, creating about 30 tons of coffee grounds. Such surprising large numbers are still climbing up, in a speed of 4.5 times per year! What’s more, there are more than one billion coffee lovers around the world, who consume 1.6 billion cups of coffee in total per day! The enormous consummation creates tons of coffee grounds, but has anyone come up with any idea to deal with it?

“What should we do with such huge amount of coffee grounds? ” It is a question SINGTEX bears in mind. After 4 years of research, 8 generations of imperfect samples, SINGTEX finally created S. Café, an eco-friendly, high-tech coffee yarn, with the ability of turning coffee grounds into functional textile. The technology totally changed coffee grounds’ fate. Now SINGTEX collaborates with several famous coffee chain stores, recycles about 500 tons of coffee grounds everyday, thus realizing the 3 R’s of the environment: Recycle, Reduce, Reuse.

Coffee is now not just for drinking, it’s for wearing, too! 3 cups of coffee and 5 PET bottles, that’s what a piece of coffee yarn clothing needs. The technology not only reduces wastes, but saves energy and lowers carbon emissions. The functionality and eco-friendliness of coffee yarn also finds its expression in its odor-absorbing feature: it effectively reduces the need for water-washing of clothes, thus preserving more energy. More than 110 well-known brands around the world are S. Café lovers.

What else can coffee grounds do? SINGTEXS continues to explore the application of coffee grounds, with an endeavor to create a multi-dimensions series of eco-friendly coffee products. From textile material to daily supply, SINGTEX is transforming the use of coffee grounds, expanding eco-friendliness to various areas, hoping to form a cycle of the good, thus staying in harmony with Mother Nature. click to see the Coffee Tree   >>