Australian researchers at Swinburne University of Technology have created strong, sustainable bricks using used coffee grounds, offering a promising solution for reducing the construction industry’s carbon footprint.
On June 27, Swinburne signed an intellectual property licensing agreement with startup Green Brick to bring these eco-friendly bricks to market.
For over a century, construction materials have largely been evaluated based on cost per square meter. But as the industry shifts focus to carbon impact, transparency, and circularity, these coffee-based bricks offer a competitive advantage. According to Philip Ng, founder of Green Brick, these new metrics favor products like theirs.
Globally, coffee consumption leads to the generation of around 18 million tonnes of wet spent coffee grounds each year. In Australia alone, over 1.3 million cups of coffee are sold daily, producing around 10,000 tonnes of coffee waste annually. Most of this waste ends up in landfills, where it decomposes and releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
To tackle this issue, Dr. Yat Wong and his team at Swinburne sought a way to turn this waste into a resource. While previous efforts have transformed coffee waste into biochar for concrete or extracted oils, this new project takes a different path—replacing traditional clay bricks with a low-emission alternative.
The researchers collected used coffee grounds from local cafes and restaurants and mixed them with clay and an alkali activator. This blend allowed the bricks to be fired at just 200 degrees Celsius—about 80 percent lower than the temperature needed for conventional bricks. As a result, the process significantly reduces electricity-related CO₂ emissions by up to 80 percent per unit.
The finished bricks are not only eco-friendly but also impressively strong—reportedly exceeding the Australian minimum standard for strength by twofold.
In addition to slashing emissions, this innovation diverts large volumes of organic waste from landfills, addressing both waste management and sustainable building goals in one step.
Efforts to develop low-carbon bricks are not limited to coffee waste. In 2024, Grimshaw architecture studio partnered with the University of East London to create “Sugarcrete,” a brick made from bagasse—the fibrous byproduct of sugarcane. Sugarcrete reportedly generates just 5 to 6 percent of the emissions of traditional bricks and is significantly lighter than concrete.
As researchers around the world explore sustainable alternatives using agricultural and food waste, the construction industry may soon see a broader shift toward circular, low-carbon materials. With innovations like these, the question becomes not whether sustainable bricks are possible—but which waste stream will be next.
By Impact Lab
