Millions of cups of coffee and tea are consumed worldwide every week. Their remnants – coffee grounds and tea leaves – are thrown in the trash, then end up in landfills, where they simply lie there, serving no purpose. Three Taiwanese designers decided to look at this problem differently. Instead of composting or further disposal, they are transforming these waste materials into furniture, lighting, and sculptures. The project is called "After the Last Sip." Designers Chao-Chun Kung, Chin-Yu Lin, and Chen-Yang Chang collected used tea leaves from bubble tea shops in London and coffee grounds from local cafes. The collected waste was dried, ground, and mixed with a biodegradable PLA polymer. The resulting composite material became the basis for robotic 3D printing. Each designer approached working with this unusual raw material in their own way. Chao-Chun Kung created the object "CHA," whose form is based on a parametric system derived from the Chinese character for "tea." Chin-Yu Lin, in his "Undetermined Shore," used coffee grounds to create layered surfaces resembling geological deposits, linking this to the image of Taiwan's changing coastline. Chen-Yang Chang, in "Nexus Bloom," gave the tea waste smooth, organic forms that resemble grown rather than printed objects. The distinctive feature of "After the Last Sip" is that the designers do not try to hide the material's origin. On the contrary, the visible print layers, tea leaf particles, and coffee grounds emphasize its nature. This is a conscious departure from the trend of masking recycled materials as conventional ones. Such honesty prompts reflection on daily consumption and the volume of waste generated. The project demonstrates how recycled materials can gain new value without losing their identity. Despite the somewhat experimental nature of the surfaces, which suggests ongoing research in composites, "After the Last Sip" appears to be a genuine material science exploration rather than just a marketing ploy under the banner of sustainability. It serves as a reminder that even an empty cup can be the beginning of something new.
Gadgets
Coffee grounds and tea leaves find new life in art
Millions of cups of coffee and tea are consumed worldwide every week.
Author: Клаус Вебер · Sep 42 min

Category: Gadgets
Sources and verification
- Source: Yanko Design
Original publication ↗
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