Coffee-based hair range takes ‘green’ to another level with bottles that sprout into trees

By Michelle Yeomans

- Last updated on GMT

Coffee-based hair range takes ‘green’ to another level with bottles that sprout into trees

Related tags Coffee

It’s a case of gastronomy meets beauty again! Hair care line; ‘O’right Recoffee’ featuring recycled coffee grounds from Taiwan has analysts flagging it up as the ‘innovation of the week’ due to its’ green aspirations. 

The shampoos and conditioners are based on recycled grounds collected from coffee shops in Taiwan, the oil of which is reported to be antioxidant-rich and protects the hair from heat damage, slows down ageing, and replenishes moisture.

Then, there’s the ambitious packaging.

Seeds have been embedded in a plug in the bottom
of every bottle, so that when empty, it can be buried in soil, where it will decompose and sprout into a coffee tree in one to two months.

This attribute alone has seen the likes of Datamonitor Consumer’s Tom Vierhile declare the range to be a “very clever way to integrate recycled ingredients” ​and thelevel of commitment to ‘green’ marketing, to be “far beyond the ordinary.”

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Coffee grounds among the world’s most common waste

According to O'right founder Steven Ko; recycled coffee grounds are among the world’s most common waste products, which are also present in the packaging, made in a “100% clean energy green​” facility.

According to Ko, 14,000 cups of coffee are consumed around the world every second, which results in a total of 22 million kilograms of discarded coffee grounds every year.

Each shampoo made from 16 cups of ground coffee.

The oil is extracted from the grounds with a recovery rate of just 2%, so it takes a lot of coffee grounds to produce the oil,”​ Ko reveals.

Packaging is ‘first of its kind’

The biodegradable bottles, comprised of plastic-like starch, are processed from fruit, plant, and vegetable waste.

Each litre uses the coffee grounds from 16 medium cups of coffee.

FACILITY

To be exact, 16 cups of medium-sized Starbucks coffee produce about 320 grams of coffee grounds, but only 5 grams of coffee oil can be extracted from these coffee grounds.

The extracted coffee oil must then be further processed before it is added into a special formula to produce 1,000 milliliters of Recoffee shampoo.

Home to the first GMP-certified green cosmetics plant in Asia, O'right manufactures all of its products using 100 percent solar- and wind-energy, along with waste-water-management systems that enable the reuse of water resources.

O'right's eco-friendly measures have received numerous awards at both the national and international level.

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