If you are anything like me you rely on coffee to function.
Many mornings have been saved with the addition of a caffeine hit to be awake and aware. This amazing beverage has become something of a cultural phenomenon particularly in Australia with thousands of independent cafes and retailers catering to a loyal clientele base who often feel a sense of loyalty to their preferred baristas and blends.
In terms of sustainability the coffee business has come a long way with the introduction of recyclable cups as well as the introduction of keep cups for those people who like to go that little bit further with the environmental conscience so they can feel superior to the rest of us. Using recyclable and keep cups over polystyrene or plastics is only a small action on an individual scale but when you realize that one busy cafe alone can sell over 800 cups of coffee before 10am its clear that it really stacks up.
That’s why sustainability initiatives that involve coffee are so elegant, they don’t need to be big and they don’t need to be fancy. One small change can have a huge impact when in is replicated thousands upon thousands of times each morning as we try to keep ourselves awake. For this very reason, I am very excited about the emerging idea of re-using spent coffee grounds.
Uses of spent grounds:
-Mushroom farming
–Bioactive compounds that can be used in skin care products
Spent coffee grounds are ideal for re-using as the high temperature conditions in the brewing process partially sterilize the grounds and since spent grounds are usually stored separately to regular waste contamination is low.
Some cafes and most prominently some cafes of the chain store Starbucks already have programs where spent coffee grounds are given out to customers for use in their gardens as either compost or fertilizer. This is a simple and effective way to re-use spent grounds but there simply aren’t enough compost heaps to take the annual 3000 tonnes of coffee grounds that is produced annually in Sydney alone.
The trend in Australia is also to avoid chain cafes like Starbucks in favor of independent cafes so if anything is to become effective it needs to be more widely organized across independent businesses. The good news is that 77% of businesses are interested in coffee ground recovery programs.
One of the more interesting and exciting applications of used coffee grounds is in power generation and heating. As it is organic matter it can be used along with other biomass and put through the process of anaerobic digestion.
Anaerobic digestion is the process undergone by biomass when it breaks down in a deoxygenized environment and it results in the production of biogas. Though expensive and difficult to set up biogas can be burned to produce electricity and heat buildings and unlike fossil fuels it is carbon neutral. This idea is also feasible in Melbourne as a biogas plant in Federation Square.
Another great and surprising use for spent coffee grounds is in skin care cosmetics. Coffee grounds contain de-oxidizing chemicals that are found in skin care product and is also great for exfoliation and is also reported to have anti-wrinkle properties.
These benefits are partially due to the bioactive compound caffeine which is unsurprisingly very present in spent coffee grounds. Caffeine tightens the skin and it also can restrict blood vessels reducing the prominence of puffy eyes.
This use interests me in the sense of it being a commercial product that is sourced from an otherwise wasted product. It adds a financial incentive to being more sustainable and also allows for the possibility for a business to be run off the back of this concept.
If you want to check out ways you can make your own skin care products from spent grounds you can check that out here.
We should think about small scale sustainability ideas. This was all about coffee but the same is true for any concept. Any small idea can have a big impact if its shared enough and practiced by enough people. If you think the ideas I’ve discussed in this are feasible you should checkout PlanetArk and register your interest. If you have an idea for a small sustainable project that you find interesting let me know and leave a comment, I would love to hear what you think.
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