Upcycling Spent Coffee Grounds: Approaches, Emerging Concepts and Applications

Every cup of coffee leaves behind a mountain of waste—millions of tonnes of spent grounds each year, packed with hidden value. What if that waste could become food, fuel, and packaging?

Spent coffee grounds (SCG) are more than just landfill filler. With global coffee consumption rising, we now generate millions of tonnes annually, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and waste problems while losing valuable compounds like caffeine, dietary fibre, phenolics, antioxidants, proteins, and lipids. This review dives into recent advances in turning SCG into useful products across food, nutraceuticals, bioenergy, and packaging.

Key Points

• Millions of tonnes of SCG waste annually
• Valorization via green extraction and bioconversion
• Key gaps: scalability, toxicity, and standardization