Dr Kalie Cheng was born in Taiwan and raised in Germany, as he is of Taiwanese and German descent. He studied polymer chemistry at the university of cologne and finished his PhD in 2015. After his first Job he was in parental leave for 1,5 years and thought of how he could use his knowledge to have a positive impact on the planet. During this time, he met his partner Abiye Dagnew in a public swimming pool, because their kids played together. Abiye Dagnew was born in Ethiopia and raised in Germany and is a plastic engineer. The two connected quickly and the idea of bringing missing recycling technologies to developing countries was born. In 2018 they founded the company Plastic2Beans. First studies on the recycling sector of Ethiopia on behalf of the GIZ were conducted in 2019/20 and 2021. From the first day they sold coffee to co-finance the recycling projects, now selling coffee to REWE, KölnMesse, Warner Bros., Katjes etc. In 2020 they also opened the Impact Cafè.
