Grounds for recycling

The Tokyo-based firm of Hakugen is working with Coca-Cola to recycle coffee grounds to make disposable pocket-warmers.

The joint initiative will enable coffee grounds generated through the production of Georgia canned coffee at three Coca-Cola plants to be processed into activated carbon for the pocket warmers.

The coffee grounds will be sold to a manufacturer of activated carbon and the activated carbon that is produced will then be bought by Hakugen as a raw material.

Activated carbon exerts an exothermic reaction on iron filings, the main raw material used in disposable pocket warmers.

Hakugen will begin using activated carbon derived from the Coca-Cola coffee grounds for all of its pocket warmers, beginning this month.

The three Coca-Cola plants involved in the recycling initiative - Tama Plant (Higashikurume, Tokyo), Saitama Plant (Yoshimi-machi, Saitama Prefecture) and Ibaraki Plant (Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture) - generate 10,000 tonnes of coffee grounds a year.