My wife’s unbridled passion for coffee my just help build better houses and roads. Researchers in Australia have figured out a way to add coffee grounds into concrete to make it 30% stronger. And we have plenty of coffee grounds to work with; 22 billion pounds per year worldwide.
Also, it cuts down on the amount of sand needed for concrete, saving a much needed resource AND it cuts down on organic waste that create greenhouse gases as it breaks down. Again 22 billion pounds of coffee grounds a year.
Don’t try buying some Quick Crete at Menards and tossing the grounds in straight from your kitchen. There’s a process where the grounds have to be super-heated to get all the organic molecules and turn it in to a charcoal.
It’ll take some more testing before they put this new type of concrete on the market.