Grounds for Recycling

Submitted by Louie Greenwell, GIS service area leader (Louisville, KY)

It’s time to brew another pot of coffee. The brew basket and the used grounds are still remaining from the last pot. Instead of tossing the used grounds into the trash, take a second and consider reusing them. Yes, that’s right; those soggy coffee grounds are good for much more than providing you with a shot of energy.

Here’s why.

Shortly after moving into our new Louisville, Kentucky office in May, I began collecting the used coffee grounds and recycling them. Every other week, I collect approximately 30 pounds of used coffee and tea grounds between the two coffee stations in our building. I take home the grounds to help fuel my compost bin, which also includes various biodegradable kitchen and yard waste. Once ready, I use the composted material to feed my vegetable garden, which has grown to roughly 850 square feet in size.

Composting bounty!

I have been gardening for the last 15 years and usually grow enough vegetables during the summer and fall to feed my family and neighbors. Overflow veggies also find their way in the Louisville office break room. This past summer, I was able to bring hot peppers, okra, green beans, tomatoes, pickling cucumbers and watermelons to the Stantec table. Some of the other crops that made up my bountiful harvest this year included corn, sweet potatoes, broccoli and Napa cabbage.

I really enjoy growing food and sharing with others; it’s been a part of my family for generations and a part of my life since childhood. As a child, I spent summers on my grandmother’s farm in Springfield, Kentucky, helping her tend to various crops including her massive strawberry patch. I can still remember working in the garden for hours on end with my grandmother, but it didn’t seem like work at the time. As a teenager, I also worked for several years as a produce clerk at a grocery store. I never really thought about it before, but I guess I have always been a farmer at heart.

A sample compost bin

That includes turning an office coffee addiction into free fertilizer. At our current rate of consumption, the Louisville office will generate over a ton of grounds in under three years! Instead of going to the landfill never to be used again, the composted material goes back into the ground, recharges the soil nutrients and ultimately ends up back in the break room to feed the office – win, win, win! I am hopeful next year’s harvest will be bigger and better than the last. Not to worry though; I have no plans to leave my day job for the glamour and riches of farming. I’ll leave the real farming to the professionals.