Did you know that Aussies consume around 6 billion cups of coffee per year? Yep, we’re obsessed. And for good reason, we have some of the best coffee on the planet. Melbourne is a key culprit with just about every type of coffee under the sun on offer, and home-grown coffee roasters making their mark in the coffee industry on a global scale. But there is a dark side to our love for this cheeky brew, and that’s because it does contribute to landfill and greenhouse gas emissions in a big way.
Over the last few years there has been an increase in our awareness of the impact that us humans have on the planet, and when it comes to coffee we’ve been quick to jump onto reusable coffee cups, with a range of beautiful options now on offer in every colour, material and shape your heart could desire – our faves include the Keep Cup Brew, the Frank Green Smart Cup & the Joco Cup.
While we’re all making a big effort to reduce landfill from takeaway cups, there’s another side that you might not have thought about & that’s coffee grounds. Every year Australia produces an estimated 75,000 tonnes of spent ground coffee waste. The majority of this goes directly to landfill where it contributes significantly to climate change through the production of methane - a greenhouse gas which is 34 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Enter Reground. These guys are leading the charge when it comes to reducing landfill & greenhouse gas emissions by reusing grounds in the best way possible. Put simply, they exist to create positive change.
So how are they doing it? Well, the concept is simple:
- Café’s make coffees.
- They put their spent coffee grounds in the reground bin
- Reground picks up the bin on a regular basis & gets the grounds to community gardens and home growers who put the waste to positive use in their garden.
How easy is that?!
At Dineamic we love the idea, and we joined forces with the Reground team to put our grounds to better use and be a part of their ever-growing list of Reground Cafes & Roasteries (including our friends at Allpress). While we’ve only been on board for a little while, we have been able to save 1255kgs of ground coffee from landfill and 3744kgs of harmful greenhouse gases from going into the atmosphere unnecessarily since September 2017.
Not only is this small change making a difference to our impact on the environment, but we also know that our grounds are going to good use. Our coffee from Dineamic @ Ikon Park (Carlton) and Dineamic South Yarra have gone to the Melbourne Zoo, community gardens and home gardeners around Melbourne, which we love!
Coffee grounds can be used in a number of ways, from reconditioning soil to compost and worm farms. We’re going to hazard a guess and say that while Mary may have used silver bells & cockle shells, she was probably also using coffee grounds as mulch.
Check out the Reground website for more info and how to get involved – click here to organise some grounds for your garden (did we mention it’s free?!), or click here if you want to organise a bin for your own café.
Now please excuse us while we go drink coffee & tend to our gardens.