FABRIC TALK: COFFEE
WHAT
Coffee grounds are combined with polyester from recycled plastic bottles to make the actual fabric; Roasted coffee grounds are mixed in with recycled polyester to create coffee yarn. Then the Coffee-laced yarn is used to make fabrics.
WHERE
S.Café® was an idea of third generation textile maker Jason Chan and his wife who noticed a group of old ladies collecting leftover coffee grounds from the counter at their local Starbucks in Taiwan. The notion that coffee grounds can take away body odors made them after four years of research launch S.Cafe and develop the world's first mill that converts leftover coffee grounds to fabric.
HOW
The exceptional features of S.Café®, like its rapid drying process as well as its odor control and protection against UV rays, are obtained by roasting the coffee beans. The interior of the bean becomes larger during roasting and creates a naturally well-ventilated yarn.
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The coffee grounds used to create the yarn are taken and recycled from some of the world’s largest coffee vendors, like Starbucks. In this way, the company gives a second life to coffee grounds which would have otherwise ended up in the trash. In addition, garments made from S.Café can also be composted at the end of their life, ensuring they do not go to waste in one of the world’s landfills and used to grow more coffee, giving it a circular lifecycle. The brands using S.Café at the moment like Patagonia, North Face, Timberland, Adidas, American Eagle, and Victoria's Secret use it in blends with recycled PET, which takes away the compostable and circular advantage of the end product.
CHARACTERISTICS