Oregon State researchers make advance effort to turn coffee grounds into food packaging

Coffee grounds are good for more than just that morning jolt of caffeine, from plant fertilizer to facial scrubs.

You can now add food packaging into the mix

The peracetic acid helps lighten the grounds and create a cellulose-rich concentrate that resembles paste or mashed potatoes. The paste can be diluted as needed and then dried for various packaging applications.

According to researchers at Oregon State University, they say they've found a way to convert used coffee grounds into material that can be used as packaging, with the added benefit of being anti-microbial and antioxidant, possibly extending the shelf-life of packaged foods.

The researchers can incorporate bioactive ingredients, which are substances found in plants and foods that can have desirable biological properties, including antioxidant and antimicrobial effects, into the packaging materials.

But reasearchers say don't start saving your coffee grounds to sell for packaging, a large scale processing plant would be necessary to make this into a reality.