Starbucks’ Food Waste Fuels Experimental Biorefinery  Wasted
pastries and coffee grounds from Starbucks could be turned into
precursors to plastic. Credit: {link url=""}Andreanna Moya
Photography/Flickr{/link}  starbucks pastry Leftover pastries
and coffee grounds from Starbucks could be turned into
precursors to plastic. Credit: {link url=””}Andreanna Moya
Photography/Flickr{/link}  An experimental biorefinery turns
spent coffee grounds and old pastries from Starbucks into a
building block for plastic. Using food waste as fuel might
improve the sustainability of biobased chemical production, the
researchers say.  Oil refineries clean up crude oil to produce
fuel for cars, trucks and planes. Side products from that
process include building blocks for plastics, fabrics and
detergents, like lactic acid, succinic acid and glycerol.
Biorefineries could reduce our dependence on fossil fuels by
creating fuel from renewable sources of energy like plant
biomass. Right now, many biorefineries consume sugars and starc