Composite board made from waste plastic and coffee grounds

Curface is a new composite board from UK-based design firm Re-Worked, made from waste plastic and coffee grounds.

If environmentally hostile Styrofoam can be replaced by fungus and rice hulls — or milk proteins and clay, for that matter — then why couldn’t recycled waste plastic and coffee grounds be used to make furniture? Sure enough, it can, thanks to Curface, a new composite board made from just those materials by UK-based design firm Re-Worked. Curface is an extended high-impact polystyrene thermoplastic board, the surface of which feels like a combination of chocolate, leather and stone, its maker says. Designed primarily for interior use, it can be easily manipulated using standard woodworking tools. It’s waterproof, and requires no coating or finishing; scratches are easily fixed with sandpaper, Re-Worked says. Sheets of Curface can even be welded together, and the company has just introduced an injection mouldable pellet form of the composite material. Best of all, however, is that Curface is made in the UK from 30 percent locally recycled coffee grounds along with waste plastic. Curface is made to order in four sheet thicknesses — 5mm, 12mm, 18mm and 25mm — and a range of furniture using the material is also available. Re-Worked is now gearing up to open a showroom in West London in September. One to get involved in early? Spotted by: Matthew Smith