Wasted coffee. This topic could be its own book. In the meantime, it’s a post:
The food waste experts at LeanPath have provided some helpful and potentially money-saving hints on both reducing the amount of excess coffee and what to do with the inevitable excess. While the tips are aimed at restaurants and institutional settings, mostly, they still are quite applicable.
The LeanPath post reminds us that there are alternate uses not just for coffee, but also grounds. Here are the 11 ways to use old grounds. And just because I’m feeling generous, here are 10 more to make it 21 uses for used grounds. Enjoy that coffee facial!
For some reason, I can’t get as outraged at coffee waste as I do with food waste. (Am I alone on that?) Still, growing coffee, like all agriculture, is resource-intensive. May as well try not to dump out a full pot at the end of every day or night.
Offices must be among the larger sources for coffee waste (cafes, of course). I’m wondering does anyone out there work at a place that utilizes the extra Joe at the end of day or is it dumped?
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Starbucks has Grounds for your Garden, but at the store I work at we haven’t set them aside in a long time. Not sure why. We end up with thirty gallon bags full of grounds, because of a special system where the coffee has to be changed every twenty-four minutes. Not to mention all of the perfectly good coffee that’s poured down the sink…
Every 24 minutes?!?
Tracy, it’s not just your location. Can’t remember the last time I saw the Garden basket full, though most Austin locations still display them. Hint to gardeners/wormers/etc.: ask! Some barristas will even help lug that giant bag of grounds to the car. -G-
Jonathan:
Not the current workplace, though the coffee’s so bad there it’s not worth saving. But I have worked places where not-too-old leftover coffee is refrigerated for later ingestion as iced coffee. Not flashily green, but simple.
DSF
http://bokashislope.blogspot.com
…pickling used coffee grounds without any guilt at all…
Hi Jonathan,
What a coincidence – yesterday I posted about used coffee grounds on my new blog everydayfrugaleverydaygreen.blogspot.com
I’m impressed that you have 21 uses!
You have one of the best blogs on the web. Keep up the good work.
http://everydayfrugaleverydaygreen.blogspot.com/2010/01/getting-creative-with-coffee-grounds.html
This isn’t good for industrial purposes (and probably not even great for offices), but when I have extra coffee, I freeze it in ice cube trays. Later, I take the cubes and mix it with a little sugar and milk (or if I’m feeling weird, I mix it with flavoured creamer instead of milk). It melts slowly and makes a lovely drink. Alternately, it could be used to make a blended coffee drink, without even needing the ice dilution.
DSF, Today at a local cafe (Foster’s), I saw lots of packages of grounds for people to take. but you’re right–can’t hurt to ask.
Dee Dee, great minds…
Coffee cubes–that’s a cool idea, Allie! (couldn’t resist)
I keep a container handy for when I run into someone who is planning to throw some away. Most people love to give it to me. I don’t think that anyone really wants to waste.
Jonathan: It’s a bizzare system that’s designed to give the impression that the coffee is fresh. Which is funny, because most Starbucks coffee is roasted months in advance, then shipped to stores in big vacuum sealed bags. Kind of hard to explain in writing, but I’d be glad to elaborate if you’re interested 🙂
None of the Starbucks in my area (Rockville, MD) give out the big bags of grounds anymore. Sometimes, if you’re very lucky, there will be a small prettified recycled pound bag sitting on the floor.
It seems that when they went to the premeasured hockey puck system for the espresso machines, they gave up on collecting the grounds for gardeners. I sure miss it.
If you can pick up the grounds that day, a Starbucks is still required to save grounds for you if you ask them.
Last summer I picked up coffee grounds once or twice per week from my local Starbucks. They were used to feed the tomatoes in my home garden and in another. The local CSA asked for any excess that we obtained. Hockey puck shape breaks up easily and the veggies grow well.
I was just doing some online search about used coffee grounds as I suddenly wondered if the tonnes of coffee used for retail might be recycled into methane power plants or something, somewhere… It seems to me that it could be very easy to collect on a large scale… But maybe that’s science fiction, I mostly found gardening tips so far!