The Upcycle Project

Coffee, after coffee.

Our project starts with spent grounds from carefully selected cafés — material that has finished brewing but can still be useful. We collect, review, prepare and incorporate suitable grounds into our body-care formulations.

Why it exists

A waste stream becomes a material stream.

We build café relationships with consistency and responsible practices in mind. Collected grounds are reviewed batch by batch before use, and only suitable material moves forward into preparation and formulation. As the partner network grows, this page will document the people, places and batches behind the project.

01

Select

We work with café partners chosen with quality, consistency and responsible practices in mind.

02

Collect & check

Grounds are collected and each batch is reviewed before being accepted for further preparation.

03

Prepare

Suitable grounds are thoroughly dried and refined to the intended exfoliating texture.

04

Blend

The prepared coffee is incorporated into small-batch formulations with selected oils, butters and supporting ingredients.

Cafe partners

The people behind the grounds.

Meet the cafés helping us give spent coffee grounds a second life. More partner stories are coming soon.

Cafe partner illustration

Auckland Central

Cafe partner illustration

West Auckland

Cafe partner illustration

North Shore

Run a cafe?

Save your grounds for us.

Tell us where you are, how much coffee you typically go through, and how often collection could work.

Talk to us