Ameerali Hassanali (FoS), Kommareddi Lakshmi Sirisha (FASS), Liu Renxing (FoS), Ng Choon Kiat William (FoE), Toh Yunqi Cheryl (SDE), Zhong Yibai
Academic Advisor: Mr. Lim Cheng Puay
In a highly urbanized country with a 45-hour average work week like Singapore, coffee consumption is rapidly increasing. Coffee generates an average of 50 tonnes of grounds, which is incinerated together with other food waste. Besides the issue of the limited capacity of Pulau Semakau for waste disposal, wet coffee grounds present problems with waste incineration, as its incineration requires more energy. Our group aims to alleviate the problem by re-purposing coffee grounds for other uses. Through this, we aim to not just help to alleviate coffee’s polluting effect, but also create an alternative material for practical usages in daily life. By combining coffee grounds with materials such as beeswax, resin and we intend to create a material block that does not easily turn moldy, has certain tensile, strength, impact absorbent and hardness properties. To test for these desired properties, we intend to use equipment found in the engineering laboratories to obtain reliable tests and data through which we can evaluate our material. To further substantiate our material, we intend to use the same evaluation for other materials and compare that with our material to show that our material is feasible for adaptation into products.
Keywords: Waste Management, Coffee waste, Upcycling, Circular economy