Brews To Blooms

What it does

Brews To Blooms is an environmentally beneficial solution that allows anybody to make their own biodegradable plant pots at home using spent coffee waste mixed with simple and readily available household ingredients.

Your inspiration

This project was founded on the basis of two personal observations. My family shares an espresso machine and coffee waste would sometimes used by my mother in her garden. At the plant nursery I observed that there was a large mesh tray full of scattered plastic pots. I saw and felt that all the cheap, sun-burnt and thin, non-recyclable plastic was wasteful. I made a mental connection between the use of coffee grounds in gardening and the plant pot waste. From that point onwards I wanted to establish a solution that would give coffee waste more purpose while simultaneously reducing the need for plastic pots in household gardens.

How it works

My Brews To Blooms system and recipe is accessed by website. It allows anybody to follow the recipe to make their own biodegradable plant pot made from coffee waste at home using simple household utensils and ingredients. All ingredients are biodegradable and environmentally compatible with gardens and plants. Once the coffee plant pot is made by the user it can be used for a wide range of methods. It can be used to foster the growth of new seeds, plants grown in plastic plant pots can be transferred into the coffee plant pot, it can be used indoors or outdoors and planted directly into garden soil. The materials used in the plant pot are beneficial to garden use. As coffee waste decomposes over time, the nutrients present in spent coffee waste nourish the growth of the plant. The nutrients also attract earthworms which produce castings that act as an organic fertiliser, attracting healthy bacteria and fungi, and finally producing humus, a healthy soil.

Design process

The initial process began with thinking of ways to repurpose spent coffee waste. By combining the benefits of spent coffee waste within garden and composting use, I discovered that coffee waste would be beneficial to the plant health and environment when combined into a plant pot. An added benefit is reducing the need for plastic plant pots which have a detrimental end-of-life, being hard to recycle and leaking dangerous plasticisers into the environment. My prototyping stage began with material research and in a pan, mixing and heating coffee grounds with starches. I then took this thickened mixture, similar to the consistency of cake batter and poured it into a makeshift mould, using one large and one small cup that would form the shape of the biodegradable plant pot. Throughout my testing I experimented with different materials, cooking methods, drying methods such as oven baking, microwaving and air-drying, and different types of sizes and materials for the coffee plant pot mould. I tested the plant pot durability indoors, outdoors, exposed to the weather, lasting 12 weeks before losing structure. I also made a box with a clear acrylic window so I could analyse and document the natural process of biodegradability of the coffee plant pot once planted into the soil.

How it is different

My design is different because it is free and widely accessible by anybody to make their own biodegradable plant pots at home. In my research of existing alternatives to plastic plant pots, all solutions I found are made for commercial sale, some mass produced, some are expensive and some just don't work. My project repurposes this unavoidable byproduct that is spent coffee waste, and being one of the worlds most consumed beverages, repurposing is important. Using coffee waste, tapioca starch, vinegar and water, it is made using basic cooking utensils. My design is also different in appearance, every time I make the plant pot, they all look slightly different which gives my product a unique and one-of-a kind appeal. It is also durable and can be used in many different ways, like existing biodegradable plant pots, my plant pot can be planted directly into soil, used indoors due to its rigid structure and also provides aesthetic and function.

Future plans

The future of Brews To Blooms would be the continuation of prototyping and collaborating with local councils/libraries to produce community sessions where people can gather to learn and make their own biodegradable plant pots. Plans also include pitching my idea to and hopefully collaborating with a local impact lab in my city called 'Space of Waste' to continue my development in finding local solutions to the environmental crisis.

Awards