Business opportunities for coffee grounds-- making clothes and shampoo

Over the past three years, Taiwan has imported more than US $100 million worth of coffee beans every year. According to the statistics of Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs, the number of chain coffee show shops in Taiwan has increased by 20%. With the increase in coffee consumption, about 30,000 kilograms of coffee grounds are produced a day. Taiwanese businessmen are optimistic about the deodorization and germicidal properties of coffee grounds and recycle them into shampoo or functional clothing to focus on the international green market.

Hair salon cosmetics maker Olympus 39 right has worked with research institutes to refine coffee oil from recycled coffee grounds into shampoo, named after "Recoffee".

GE Wangping, general manager of O'Raide, said that 1 liter of Recoffee shampoo per bottle is equivalent to coffee grounds produced by 16 medium cups of Starbucks coffee. The bottle also contains recycled coffee grounds, which can be decomposed in the soil, and coffee seeds are placed at the bottom of the bottle. Under appropriate circumstances, coffee trees can even grow again after use.

Taiwan's long-established textile industry is also an example. Xingcai had revenue of about 1.3 billion NT dollars last year and has always been mainly exported to Europe and the United States. the company director said that the coffee yarn developed is used by more than 100 international well-known brands around the world, such as Patagonia, Timberland, The North Face, Nike and Puma.