Coffee's kind of a big deal, with a big waste problem.
$48B coffee industry. Each year, 25B lbs of dried green coffee is processed for export. 100B lbs of coffee fruit (cascara) is harvested as a byproduct, of which 70% is thrown to waste.
Coffee fruit waste is left to rot in landfills, generating methane gas equivalent to 31B lbs of CO2. Equivalent to the emissions from 3M passenger cars over the course of a year.
Employment opportunities can double throughout the supply chain by increasing demand for coffee fruit.