After the denim fabric made from crustacean shells, there is now a yarn produced by recovering coffee grounds discarded in large quantities by cafés and restaurants. It is called S.Café and is produced using an innovative technology patented by Taiwanese company Singtex together with a group of researchers. A further confirmation, then, that materials derived from food or agricultural waste represent a great opportunity to reduce the use of synthetic fabrics, whose production involves the use of chemical substances that are highly harmful to the environment and to people.

How the S.Café project came about

The creators of the new hi-tech fabric are the couple formed by Jason Chen, owner of Singtex, and his wife Amy Chen. The idea came to them while the two were sitting in a café, when a man asked whether it was possible to collect the used coffee grounds to take home. Trying to make sense of such an odd request, Amy joked with her husband that perhaps the man intended to use the waste to remove bad odours from clothes.

So, together with a group of researchers, Jason Chen set to work on creating a yarn that, by exploiting the natural deodorising properties of coffee, would lend itself well to the production of outdoor and leisurewear fashion items. S.Café was officially launched in 2009, after four long years of research.

A high-performance ecological fabric

Of all the coffee used in preparing the drink, only a tiny fraction ends up in the cup. The remaining 99.8 per cent, normally thrown away, is recovered by S.Café, which combines it with recycled polyester and transforms it into a yarn ready for weaving.

The end result is a high-performance fabric that, by releasing moisture, dries faster than cotton, absorbs bad odours, protects against the sun's harmful rays and keeps the skin insulated from the cold during the winter months.

An alternative to traditional outdoor materials

According to research conducted by the environmental organisation Greenpeace Germany in 2013, sportswear is produced using materials that contain a high level of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), polluting substances used for their waterproofing and elasticity properties.

Since these are substances that, once released into the environment, risk damaging ecosystems, it has become increasingly necessary to adopt less impactful solutions. Just like S.Café which, while retaining the same technical characteristics as synthetic fabrics, poses no threat to environmental balance.