Green beauty - 25th March 2022

Cafes serve coffee every morning, but where do all the used coffee grounds go?

Cafes normally pay to get their coffee waste dumped. However, in London, a company called UpCircle, started by the Brightman siblings, is turning this waste into beauty products.

Every day, UpCircle makes a collection of about 100 kilogrammes of coffee grounds, by bike, in London. This is transported to their factory and added to other products like olives and tea leaves. This is excellent for the environment.

UpCircle's founder, Anna Brightman, would like for other companies to start thinking of zero waste as well.

Anna Brightman: "I think the younger audience even more so, obvious, for obvious reasons, than the older generation are concerned about the future of our planet. And we cannot continue to take a linear approach. This really has to be the way forwards and if we can prove that it can be done in the beauty industry, then we're really hopeful as a brand that we can inspire more businesses and individuals to take this approach in their lives generally."

Barbara Scott-Atkinson develops the beauty products for UpCircle. She thinks used coffee grounds are ideal.

Barbara Scott-Atkinson: "Interestingly enough, it's a more interesting and versatile ingredient to use in, as a waste product. And in part, because it's been through that process, it's been heated and it's slightly damp, I mean you'll see from looking at the coffee. And actually that makes it more suitable to use in skincare."

Other companies like florists and juice producers, which produce natural waste, have become interested in UpCircle's business. They send their waste flowers and water from fruit to UpCircle.

Designers are also doing the same as UpCircle, looking for ways to recycle all-natural waste material. Gemma Curtin managed the Waste Age exhibition at The Design Museum in London.

Gemma Curtin: "So, there are designers in Poland looking at sugar beet waste, in Japan looking at rice husk waste, in in Mexico looking at waste from corn husks. So, people are looking at the waste that's around them. And designers are thinking, what can we do with that? How can we help the environment by using these materials?"