Another Old Boy of Dulwich Prep has formed a start-up company to transform waste material into something valuable.
Inspired by the concept of turning some of the 500,0000 tonnes coffee grounds sent to landfill every year into a useful product William Brightman (2004), together with his sister Anna, set up Opiat, One Person’s Trash Is Another’s Treasure, to turn spent Arabica coffee grounds into beauty treatments. For hundreds of years, coffee has been used a natural beauty treatment in the Far East. Full of anti-oxidants, the fine grounds act as an amazing natural exfoliator (microbead-free!) and help to stimulate blood flow, as well as being great for skin conditions such as acne, eczema, psoriasis, cellulite and stretch marks.
Since launching ‘For the Love of Scrub’, a range of four naturally-scented coffee scrubs, Optiat have now developed a new range of natural beauty products based on the unloved, unwanted husks of coffee beans. They are shipped to customers in jars designed to be reused – with refills sent in biodegradable packets, reflecting the company policy of reusing products which would otherwise be considered waste.
