Composting and Coffee: How it Works
Making a lot of coffee creates a lot of used coffee grounds. In fact, it creates three pounds of used coffee grounds just to make one keg of cold brew, six pounds of coffee to make one batch of cold brew concentrate, half a pound of coffee for each batch of Ruca house blend we brew up and then there is each puck of espresso for each and every espresso drink. That adds up very quickly, especially when you’re brewing coffee from 7am until 6pm daily!
The good news is coffee falls into the organic waste category and is easily compostable so we don’t end up carrying pounds of used coffee to the trash. It’s just the opposite, really! Our used coffee is picked up in part by a commercial composter —Collective Resource Compost— and in part by local neighbors who use the coffee to aid in their gardening and organic composting efforts.
WHat is compost and why partake?
Compost is simply a nutrient rich, dirt-like material that works wonderfully as a gardening soil. It has better fertilizing capacity than normal soil and leaves out the need for chemical additives. Compost can vary depending on the composter and scale, but in most cases organic waste is simply added to a bin or barrel and on a regular basis the compost is turned or cranked to create airflow. Compost is an aerobic process which means it requires oxygen. The end product is compost!
Composting is a super simple and super cool concept. Since coffee comes from a fruit tree (the coffee cherry tree, specifically) it can easily be returned to the ground when it used up. This helps reduce waste that is sent to the landfill while also helping to create healthier soil that will better support gardening by adding natural minerals and vitamins back into the ground. Another benefit of composting is the reduction in methane gas that is diverted by not putting food scraps in the landfill. It’s a win-win!
What does Coffee do in compost?
Once coffee is brewed, some of the nutrients that were originally in the coffee beans are extracted. However, there are lots of nutrients that are still left even after the fact! This is what makes coffee so good for composting. One particular nutrient that reaps many benefits is Nitrogen. Coffee contains a lot of Nitrogen which is known to nurturing growth and helps to produce leaves. Particularly it fosters the growth of green leafy plants such as lettuces and other shrubbery. Nitrogen is essential for growing young healthy plants and is a top ingredient in almost all fertilizers. When the nitrogen in your soil comes from coffee it’s 100% natural and there is no need for chemical additives!
Composting in the suburbs
Having so much organic waste, we wanted to find a way to reduce our landfill footprint. We started researching companies in the area that could help us to do so. Collective Resources Composting aids in the composting and education efforts in the suburbs of Chicago. They provide services for residential composting as well as commercial level establishments and serve 165 commercial customers. One of the best parts of their services is the reduction in waste that would normally go straight to the landfill and the hassle-free compost pick up! They were the perfect solution to help us reduce and reuse some of our organic waste that would otherwise sit in the landfills and take up space.
Fun Fact! Since beginning in 2010, the Collective Resources Composting company has diverted 10,000 tons of organic material from the landfill and instead created compost to help the community grow even more food!
The Raffle— drink coffee and enter to win!
Collective Resources is hosting a raffle for the third year in a row to encourage shopping local and to support those who help them compost! As a customer of Collective Resources ourselves and as avid coffee composters, Tala is one of many local business participants. This is good news for you because it means if you spend $100 at Tala Coffee Roasters or any other business listed on this page you can enter to win one of three gift cards! It does not need to be all in one visit. It could be as many visits to as many local companies as you wish so long as the receipts add up to $100.
The gift cards are $25, $50 and $75 to any restaurant listed. So drink your daily coffee, send in the receipts, and win yourself a gift card for more coffee, or whatever you’re craving at the time!
All you have to do is take a picture of your receipt(s) and email it to customerservice@collectiveresource.us by March 15th. You can enter multiple times if you make it to $100 each time so save your receipts and start sending them in. Winners are drawn randomly. Visit this page for more details.
Happy coffee drinking!!!