Reinforcing concrete with coffee

… and other ways to reuse coffee waste. Myke Bartlett explores.

Myke Bartlett

The dark side of a thriving café culture is the phenomenal amount of waste produced by a daily espresso fix. Across Melbourne, that coffee addiction amounts to a whopping 33 tonnes of coffee grounds being sent to landfill every day. But don’t reach for the instant just yet—clever minds are at work, finding innovative ways to repurpose that coffee waste, from improving topsoil to eco-friendly concrete. Melbourne social enterprise Reground has been tackling the coffee waste problem for the past ten years. Their comms manager Fiona Parsons says coffee grounds were an obvious target for organic recycling, as cafes already tend to keep them separate from other food stuffs. “It really stood out as being one material that so easily could go to a different endpoint, so the behavioural change…

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Renew (Digital) - 1 Issue, 166 / Jan-Mar 2024

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