CASE STUDY TRANSFORMING COFFEE WASTE INTO FERTILISER Coffee, grown in about 80 countries, is one of the world’s most popular beverages and second largest traded commodity after petroleum. coffee ground (SCG) is the residue obtained during the brewing process and the final product after preparation of coffee. Every year, over 500,000 tonnes of coffee grounds are generated in the UK, of which 90% are sent to landfill or incinerated. A start-up organisation, Revive Eco, collects coffee grounds from across the country and processes them at their facility. Founded in 2015 by Scott Kennedy and Fergus Moore, Revive Eco offers a waste collection service which diverts coffee grounds from landfill, and processes them to extract maximum value from the material. In 2020, they launched their first small coffee ground processing unit; now they can collect and convert 2.5 tonnes of coffee grounds per week from Scottish clients. Revive converts the coffee grounds into natural oils which have uses in a range of industries including cosmetics, food & drink and pharmaceuticals. From the residual material, they create a natural soil conditioner. Spent Properties of coffee grounds Coffee grounds contain many nutrients that are essential for fertilisation: minerals such as calcium, magnesium, nitrogen and potassium in the first place. There are also many properties in coffee grounds that prove indispensable for plants that need acidic or slightly acidic soils, but also useful for fertilising vegetables, aromatic herbs and fruit trees. Coffee grounds are soil conditioners which supply nutrients to the soil by improving its physical condition while fertilisers only supply nutrients to the soil or plants but do not improve the state of the soil. In addition, coffee grounds can also be used as a pesticide and natural repellent to keep ants and worms away from green spaces. slugs, Processing coffee grounds Revive Eco recycles spent coffee grounds from businesses at every scale: from nationwide coffee chains to independent coffee shops, cafés and restaurants, and from office blocks and transport hubs to universities and instant coffee factories. Spent coffee grounds are collected and delivered to Revive Eco factory, where innovative processes decontaminate, process and dry the grounds, before and packing them, ready for reuse, to benefit both people and planet. Since it began recycling spent coffee, Revive Eco has recycled nearly 40,000 tons of spent coffee grounds, saving just under 9,000 tons of CO2. This amount would require about 408,500 trees to be processed over the course of a year. That is a forest of 743 acres! sieving 6 Answer the questions. Where is spent coffee ground usually stocked? When did Revive Eco start their first small coffee ground processing unit? What are coffee grounds turned into? Why is the residual material converted into a soil conditioner? Compared to traditional fertilisers, what is the added value of spent coffee grounds? Do they have additional applications? How are coffee grounds processed at Revive Eco factory? What result has this coffee ground recycling business brought about so far? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 7 Go online and find italian organisations or firms which process coffee grounds and/or coffee capsules by converting them into new materials. GLOSSARY : : : to sieve setacciare slug limaccia spent esausto