- Incheon first in the country to install benches made of recycled coffee grounds -
- Recycling coffee grounds has significant environmental value and creates jobs in low-income districts –
Incheon Metropolitan City says it installed the very first batch of benches in Korea made with recycled coffee grounds at the Incheon Aetteul Square right in front of City Hall and at a cafe inside City Hall.
<Recycled coffee ground bench at the cafe inside City Hall>
These recycled coffee ground benches are made of composite lumber with used coffee grounds, most of which are discarded as general waste. Four benches are available at Aetteul Suare in front of City Hall and one additional bench is available at a cafe inside the City Hall building itself.
<Recycled coffee ground bench at Aetteul Square in front of City Hall>
Incheon signed an agreement with Dongha Co., Ltd. to promote the recycling of coffee grounds under the Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute's “Validation Test Support Project using Environmental Infrastructure.”
The City has participated in the coffee ground recycling initiative since 2019, and it signed a business agreement with local “self-sufficiency centers” in July 2022. In 2023 alone, Incheon collected almost 340 tons of coffee grounds for recycling.
Coffee grounds are recycled into wooden decking, barn bedding, pencils, and flower pots, and the total volume of collected used coffee grounds increased by more than 50% compared to the previous year.
Incheon plans to continue to push forward with its coffee recycling project by cooperating with each district (Gu) office and local self-sufficiency centers in order to add to its list of participating cafes.
Choi Myeong-hwan, head of Incheon's Resource Circulation Department, said, “I hope that this will serve as an opportunity for locals who come to Aetteul Square to think about the value of creating a virtuous cycle of turning discarded waste products into valuable resources as they sit and relax on our new benches made of recycled coffee grounds.”
