Coffee concrete : What if your morning coffee could end up helping build a footpath? That is what happened in Pakenham, Victoria, where spent coffee grounds were turned into biochar and used in concrete as part of a major infrastructure project. In 2024, an innovation developed by researchers at RMIT University was used for the first time in a major infrastructure project. Major Road Projects Victoria and contractor BildGroup used concrete containing biochar made from spent coffee grounds in the Pakenham Roads Upgrade, part of Victoria’s Big Build.
The coffee grounds were not mixed directly into the concrete. Instead, they were converted into biochar, which replaced part of the river sand normally used in the concrete mix.
