As a result of anthropological activities, various pollutants, for example heavy metals, enter the environment in significant quantities. They have the potential to accumulate in living organisms and are not biodegradable in the environment. This poses a major threat to the health and life of living organisms and the environment. Therefore, the search for effective technologies to reduce anthropic pollutants in the environment is so important. Currently, membrane techniques, chemical precipitation, electrolysis, coagulation, ion exchange and adsorption, among others, are used to remove heavy metal ions. The most versatile method is adsorption on adsorbents. It is a relatively simple method, but very expensive. This prompts a constant search for new, effective and inexpensive adsorbents. Coffee is one of the most important foodstuffs and agricultural commodities in the world. From the point of view of the circular economy, by-products from the processing of coffee beans have become a valuable raw material in other areas of life. An important way to manage waste from the coffee bean processing industry is to produce adsorbents using it. There are data from laboratory studies indicating that it is possible to produce effective and low-cost adsorbents using by-products from the agro-food industry to remove pollutants from the aquatic environment and wastewater. Laboratory studies prove the high efficiency of heavy metal removal when using coffee-processing waste as adsorbents. However, data from real-world studies are still lacking. In addition, there is a lack of data from analyses on the impact of alternative adsorbents on economic, environmental and social aspects.

Wastewater generated during the processing of roasted coffee, including instant coffee, remains relatively unknown in the literature. However, it is characterized by a high organic load and the presence of caffeine, phenolic compounds, and melanoidins. Its properties pose significant environmental and technological challenges, limiting the effectiveness of conventional treatment methods. The research aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of an integrated, multi-stage wastewater treatment system that reflects the process of roasted coffee extraction. The developed technological sequence included biological treatment, activated carbon sorption, membrane filtration, and disinfection using ozone and UV radiation. The experiments used synthetic wastewater containing an extract of roasted coffee beans to simulate the contaminants typically found in instant coffee production and the cleaning of processing equipment. The integrated treatment system enabled the removal of total organic carbon (82.4–95.4%), ammonium nitrogen (0–77.4%), and phosphates (0–39.9%), and a reduction in turbidity of 96.3–99.8% at pH 4.02–7.25. The results confirm the system’s high efficiency and its potential for treating complex coffee wastewater, while also highlighting the need for further research into the selection of more favorable process parameters.

The research aimed to determine the efficiency of caffeine removal from synthetic wastewater, using biological wastewater treatment and a multi-stage process line. The study was carried out in a Sequential Biological Reactor (SBR) with different hydraulic retention times – 5, 10, 15, and 25 days, and in a process line consisting of biological treatment supplemented by the following treatment processes: sorption on activated carbon, membrane filtration, ozonation, and UV radiation. Analysis of caffeine concentration after the treatment processes was performed by liquid chromatography. Biological wastewater treatment in SBR effectively reduced caffeine to below the detection limit (<0.1 mg/dm3), regardless of the initial concentration and treatment options used. Additional pretreatment processes did not significantly enhance caffeine reduction. The results indicate the potential for using SBR as an effective and environmentally friendly method of caffeine removal. The study involved synthetic wastewater; hence, further research is needed on real samples.

Anthropogenic pressure on aquatic environments is currently associated not only with the inflow of nutrients, but also with the presence of municipal micropollutants and complex mixtures of sewage origin. This study aimed to evaluate the growth response of Lemna minor (L. minor) and the behavior of the plant–medium system under conditions of a controlled chemical gradient reflecting an increasing degree of anthropogenic transformation of the aquatic environment. The experimental setup included four synthetic media: two variants of river water with varying anthropogenic loads and two variants of synthetic wastewater, one of which was enriched with caffeine as a marker of municipal pressure. The experiment was conducted in two independent 14-day series, analyzing changes in nitrate and orthophosphate concentrations, pH, conductivity, plant morphological condition, and final biomass. The most favorable growth conditions for L. minor were found in the river variants, especially in the medium with higher loading, whereas the wastewater variants caused growth inhibition, deterioration in plant condition, and greater instability of physicochemical parameters. In the wastewater media, nitrate concentrations did not show a consistent net decrease, while orthophosphate concentrations remained high. These observations indicate that the measured nutrient forms were not effectively reduced under the tested conditions. However, the processes responsible for their temporal patterns could not be identified from the monitored parameters. The addition of caffeine modified the system’s response, but its effect was not quantitatively consistent across both series. The results confirm the usefulness of synthetic media for modeling anthropogenic pressure gradients.