OSU researchers turn coffee grounds into food packaging materials

(MARCH 27, 2025) An estimated 60 million tons of used coffee grounds are generated worldwide annually. Most end up in landfills and release methane, a potent greenhouse gas. That has led researchers to study other uses for coffee grounds. Some examples include biofuels, cosmetics, catalysts and composite materials, including concrete. According to researchers at Oregon State University, a new use might be food packaging materials. 

Coffee grounds are challenging to work with because of tightly bound lignin. It's a complex organic polymer in plants that makes them rigid. Lignin is difficult to break down, says Jooyeoun Jung, who is an assistant professor at Oregon State University.

Jung, graduate student Cecilia Hernandez-Hosaka, and other scientists from Oregon State and the Rural Development Administration in South Korea studied two pretreatment options. One uses formic and acetic acid. The other uses ethanol. The researchers cooked the spent coffee grounds with the two treatment options at high temperatures. The researchers found that the ethanol pretreatment provided the best results. It significantly lowered the unwanted impurities, and it produced cellulose-rich materials that are desirable for eco-friendly packaging materials. 

“We’ve shown that it’s possible to turn spent coffee grounds into biodegradable packaging products instead of throwing them out,” Jung says. “This could aid the coffee industry by turning a waste product into a value-added, eco-friendly product.”

Still, more research is needed, Jung said. Future research will focus on refining the processing of the material in order to enhance its ability to resist things such as light, moisture, and oxygen. Research will also try to improve the antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of the packaging to extend food product shelf life. 

The researchers believe coffee grounds could be used to make different food packages. Some examples include sheets between sliced cheese, pads underneath fresh meat, and pads in clamshell containers used to package strawberries.