How much coffee waste does Australia generate each year?

Australians consume about 175,000 tonnes of coffee every year, generating around 75,000 tonnes of coffee waste. Much of this waste, including coffee chaff, ends up in landfill, often disposed of in plastic bags that prevent natural decomposition.

What is coffee chaff and why is it a problem?

Coffee chaff is the husk removed from coffee beans during roasting. While it can be a valuable mulch or compost material, commercial-scale processing makes it hard to access and much of it ends up in landfill, often in plastic bags that prevent decomposition and add to Australia's plastic waste challenge.

Huskee is an Australian company that turns discarded coffee husks into recycled products including cups and drinkware. Their products are practical, durable and beautifully designed, demonstrating how sustainable design can transform waste into stylish everyday items.

What is the Huskee Cup made from?

The Huskee Cup is made from recycled coffee husks. It is lightweight, tactile and resilient, and represents a circular economy approach to coffee waste by turning a by-product of coffee production into a durable, reusable product.

Can coffee grounds be recycled or composted?

Yes. Some consumers recycle or compost used coffee grounds, or upcycle them in the garden to deter pests like snails. However, coffee chaff from commercial processing is less accessible to consumers and much of it ends up in landfill.

Where can I buy Huskee products in Australia?

Huskee's full range of cups and drinkware made from recycled and upcycled coffee husks is available through Dezinery, Australia's marketplace for recycled and sustainable products.

Innovation in Coffee: How Huskee Turns Waste Into High-End Design

September 11, 2025

Every year, Australians consume roughly 175,000 tonnes of coffee. While that keeps our morning routines moving, it leaves behind an environmental footprint of about 75,000 tonnes of organic waste. While many of us are diligent about composting our spent coffee grounds or using them in the garden to keep pests away, there is a hidden side to coffee waste that rarely gets talked about: coffee chaff and husks.

During the commercial roasting process, the outer layer of the coffee bean—the husk—is discarded as a byproduct. At an industrial scale, capturing and composting this lightweight material is highly inefficient. As a result, massive quantities of coffee husks are bagged up and sent to Australian landfills, where they are trapped in plastic and unable to break down naturally.

To solve a waste crisis of this scale, we need a complete shift toward a circular economy. That means designing products that treat waste not as an endpoint, but as a premium raw material.

Discovering the Circular Economy in Marrickville

Our introduction to this exact design philosophy happened organically. While visiting a local café in Marrickville, Sydney, we picked up a sleek, uniquely textured coffee cup. It was remarkably lightweight, cool to the touch, and featured clean, architectural ridges. Flipping it over, we discovered it was a HuskeeCup—a piece of functional drinkware made directly from recycled coffee husks.

Huskee, an Australian-born brand, has successfully bridged the gap between sustainable engineering and premium lifestyle aesthetics. By collecting the discarded organic waste from the coffee production chain, they process the raw husks and give them a second life as durable, reusable cups and saucers.

Hands-On Review: The 16oz HuskeeOriginal Reusable Cup

As a Sustainability Specialist, my absolute favorite piece in the collection is the 470ml / 16oz HuskeeOriginal Reusable Cup with Lid. If you love a large morning brew or a tall iced latte, this is the ideal daily companion.

When we evaluate items for the Dezinery marketplace, we use our strict, proprietary verification criteria to vet every claim. Here is exactly how the 16oz HuskeeOriginal performs under Dezinery's Product R.A.T.I.N.G. system:

Recycled Content: HIGH. A massive percentage of this cup's physical makeup is derived straight from reclaimed coffee husk waste rather than virgin plastics.
Assembly & Origin: OVERSEAS. Responsibly manufactured at the source of production to minimize processing transit footprints.
Traceability: LOW. Tracked thoroughly through a verified supply chain.
Impactful Design: AUSTRALIAN. Designed locally in Australia where the sustainable circular concept was born.
Next Life: YES. This is the ultimate benchmark of circularity. Through the "HuskeeLoop" initiative, when your cup eventually reaches the end of its life, it can be returned, collected, and remanufactured into brand-new Huskee products.
Generational Use: MEDIUM. Engineered for heavy-duty commercial café environments, meaning it is completely dishwasher-safe, highly chip-resistant, and built to survive years of daily use.

Bringing Sustainable Innovation Home

Choosing sustainable homewares shouldn't feel like a compromise on quality or style. By integrating circular economy pieces into your daily routine, you are directly reducing Australia’s landfill footprint and supporting home-grown ecological innovation.

Explore our curated online collection of Huskee drinkware, or visit the Dezinery marketplace today to experience the tactile difference of coffee-waste innovation firsthand.

Back to blog

Add us as a Preferred Source on Google. Click here.