Reduce, Reuse and Recycle with Starbucks

By now, the ‘reduce-reuse-recycle’ theme should be quite a familiar green topic. It is turning what is considered trash into something useful. Locally, Starbucks and other coffee outlets have been terrific in letting customers have their used coffee grounds.

With the local Starbucks outlet, the staff have been super in saving the coffee grounds. The customer can drop by at a pre-arranged time and pick up one or several large plastic bags of used coffee grounds. A Starbucks outlet generates several large plastic bags of used coffee grounds daily. These waste products can be dug into the garden / flower bed soil and the coffee grounds act as fertilizer. The coffee grounds add nitrogen back to the soil and repel unwanted insects. If there is a compost pile, the coffee ground are ideal for the vermiposting. The worms in the compost pile thrive on the coffee grounds.

Starbucks and other coffee establishments are to be commended for assisting local gardeners and farms in reusing the coffee grounds. The coffee establishments are reducing their waste products and, eventually, it may mean that the trash bin trucks may call on a less regular basis. That means a savings for that Starbucks store. It is a win-win situation. It really is an ideal recycling model. Everyone involve benefits.

Catherine Forsythe