When Coffee Waste Becomes Art and Community Connection

On March 6th from 9:00 to 11:00 AM, IWCA Vietnam partnered with Nhau Studio and Detech Group for a workshop at Detech Tower in Hanoi. The focus was simple: creating greeting cards and artwork from coffee grounds. The impact was broader.

Coffee grounds are usually waste. After extraction, they're discarded. But they have properties—color, texture, adhesion—that make them useful for art. The workshop explored that usefulness through three activities: creating greeting cards with coffee grounds guided by artist Thuy Anh, lego printing of coffee-themed images guided by artist Nong Thi Quynh Nha, and a lucky draw for portrait sketches.

The activities were hands-on. Participants weren't watching demonstrations. They were creating cards, making prints, working with materials. That matters because coffee grounds art isn't difficult, but it does require learning the technique. Two hours provided enough time for people to understand the process and produce something they could actually use or give.

The environmental angle matters too. Coffee produces substantial waste—grounds, chaff, cherry pulp. Finding uses for that waste reduces environmental impact and sometimes creates economic value. Coffee grounds art won't solve coffee's waste problems at scale, but it represents a mindset: looking at waste as potential resource rather than disposal problem.

For IWCA Vietnam, the workshop served multiple functions. It created community space where people interested in coffee could gather and interact. It demonstrated coffee's versatility beyond beverage. It partnered with local organizations—Nhau Studio providing artistic expertise, Detech Group providing venue and support—to create something none could do alone.

The location matters too. Detech Tower in Hanoi's My Dinh district is accessible and professional. Holding the workshop there rather than in a coffee shop or art studio positioned coffee grounds art as legitimate creative practice, not just craft hobby.

Artist Thuy Anh's guidance on card-making and artist Nong Thi Quynh Nha's guidance on lego printing provided structure. Workshop participants weren't figuring out techniques through trial and error. They were learning from artists who'd already developed effective methods.

The greeting cards participants created served practical purposes. Cards made from coffee grounds carry meaning beyond standard cards—they represent sustainability, creativity, connection to coffee culture. They're conversation starters. They're gifts that tell stories.

The lucky draw for portrait sketches added an element of surprise and additional value. Some participants left with not just the cards they made but also commissioned artwork.

Events like this don't directly address the economic challenges women coffee farmers face. They don't improve processing infrastructure or increase farmgate prices. But they contribute to something else: building coffee culture, creating community, making coffee central to creative and social life beyond just consumption.

When coffee shows up in art workshops, in creative studios, in community events, it becomes more than commodity. It becomes culture. That cultural positioning creates different kinds of value—awareness, appreciation, engagement that can eventually translate into market value for farmers.

For the women in IWCA Vietnam's network—the farmers, the processors, the entrepreneurs—events like this coffee grounds workshop represent expanding definitions of what coffee work looks like. It's not just growing and processing. It's also creating, innovating, connecting, building community.

The workshop lasted two hours. The greeting cards participants created will last longer. The idea that coffee grounds have creative value—and that IWCA Vietnam works across the full spectrum of coffee culture, not just production—lasts longer still.