The CirCo (Circular Coffee) Project: A Case Study on Valorization of Coffee Silverskin in the Context of Circular Economy in Italy

Abstract

Coffee silverskin (CSS) is one of the main byproducts of coffee roasting and poses a potential risk to the environment if disposed of incorrectly. Each year in Italy, over 500,000 tonnes of green coffee are imported for roasting followed by consumption or export. This results in over 7500 tonnes of CSS produced each year which is typically disposed of as solid waste. Silverskin contains lignocellulose and can be used as a substitute for other raw materials to produce paper pulp. Both Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) were performed to compare the impact and cost of CSS paper production to conventional paper production using only virgin pulp. It was shown that the addition of CSS reduces the environmental impact of paper production by 10% and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 13% compared to conventional production with no cost increase (0.01% reduction with addition of CSS) for the producer. The results of this case study show that the utilization of CSS for paper production at the national level in Italy represents a suitable example of circular economy (CE).

The Impact of the Drying Process on the Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Potential of Dried Ripe Coffee Cherry Pulp Soluble Powder

“…Several scientific articles applied the LCA methodology to quantify several aspects related to coffee; for example, it has been used to analyse the cultivation and initial stages [96], the decaffeination process [97], the supply chain of coffee [98], and the preparation of coffee [99]. Moreover, LCA has been applied, of course, in coffee by-product management, where the main product is spent coffee grounds [100], but also to other by-products, such as coffee silverskin [101]. Nevertheless, this is the first approach to studying the environmental impacts associated with coffee fruit cascara production.…”

Coffee By-Products as Sustainable Novel Foods: Report of the 2nd International Electronic Conference on Foods—“Future Foods and Food Technologies for a Sustainable World”

“…There are several food uses (see Section 2.7 above), such as in bakery products, biscuits, meat burgers, but also as an ingredient with smoke flavor (also see [ 7 ]). There are also uses in paper industry [ 42 ]. The critical issue is the content of heat-induced contaminants, such as acrylamide, which need to be controlled.…”

“…Non-food applications include the use of silverskin as a raw material for paper production [ 42 ]. However, for human consumption, it could be used, for example, in any type of bakery product, extruded food products or even meat products [ 28 , 47 ].…”

Application of Response Surface Methodology to Optimize the Extraction Process of Bioactive Compounds Obtained from Coffee Silverskin

“…Therefore, the fulfillment of the requirements of CEC will require food manufacturers and scientific researchers to implement efficient and environmentally friendly technologies and investigations of managing plant by-products [19][20][21][22][23]. Both surroundings should cooperate with each other and confront the significant challenges related to the possibility of reutilization of plant waste materials, especially the most exchanged coffee by-products throughout the globe, such as spent coffee grounds and coffee silverskin [4,18,[24][25][26]. The coffee silverskin (CS), known as a thin outer tegument tightly adhering to the green coffee beans, is the only by-product released during the coffee roasting process.…”