Tea And Coffee Waste Become 3D Printed Design Objects
The exhibition After the Last Sip explores how used tea leaves and coffee grounds can become materials for furniture, lighting and sculptural objects. Presented during London Design Festival 2026, it brings together Taiwanese designers Chao-Chun Kung, Ching-Yu Lin and Chen-Yang Chang. Chih-Han Liu developed the spatial curation.
At the centre of the project are bio-composites made by combining tea or coffee residues with PLA. The designers investigate how different ratios and particle sizes affect the materials’ colour, texture, translucency and structural performance. Parametric design tools and large-scale robotic 3D printing turn these experimental compounds into complex forms. Visible printed layers highlight both the digital production method and the organic content.
Collecting And Processing Local Residues
The production process starts with tea and coffee waste collected from cafés and shops in London. The residues are dried to remove moisture and then ground to achieve a consistent particle size. After compounding with PLA, the material can be processed using robotic additive manufacturing.
Finished objects are presented alongside samples, failed prints, cut sections and reprocessed offcuts. This gives visitors insight into the testing and development process. It also shows how production waste can feed back into material experiments. However, as the compounds contain PLA alongside organic residues, their end-of-life options depend on the precise formulation and available processing infrastructure.
Furniture And Lighting Applications
Several objects demonstrate the visual and structural potential of the materials. Chao-Chun Kung’s Iced Tea floor lamps use recycled tea leaves and PLA to create warm, translucent surfaces. The modular ORBIT lamps incorporate recycled coffee grounds, producing an earthy and speckled appearance when unlit and a softer glow when illuminated.
The designer’s Soft Cell functions as both a stool and side table. Its thin continuous shell gains rigidity from a rounded cellular interior. In CHA / 茶, the Chinese character for tea forms the starting point for a parametric system that can become a stool, table or two-metre-high sculpture.
Ching-Yu Lin’s Undetermined Shore uses coffee grounds, PLA and LED lighting to reflect on Taiwan’s changing coastline. Meanwhile, Chen-Yang Chang’s Unfolding Bloom examines how one continuous line can expand into a translucent sculptural light. Chang and Kung also collaborated on Nexus Bloom, an outdoor furniture piece with web-like supports and an open centre for plants and light.
A Working Exhibition Environment
Rather than presenting only finished objects, the exhibition takes place inside a working 3D-printing workshop. This setting connects the material research directly with the tools used to fabricate the designs.
After the Last Sip runs from 12 to 18 September 2026 at Fab.Pub, 22 Gossamer Gardens, London, as part of London Design Festival.
Source & photos: INNOVUS LAB