By Gabriella Vukman
The Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges are the next destinations for a Melbourne coffee grounds recycling and rejuvenation scheme.
A social enterprise that focuses on sustainability has been diverting coffee grounds from landfill for 10 years and the Ranges and Yarra Valley are next on the list of grounds recipients.
In the name of repurposing coffee grounds into fertiliser, social enterprise Reground delivers coffee grounds to gardeners and farms for free.
Whilst Reground is based in Heidelberg and operates via a 30km radius of the suburb, they are currently delivering some grounds to the Valley and Ranges but are looking to expand their routes and set up a new hub in the hills for more permanent, frequent and easier access.
Tecoma resident and Reground operations manager Beatrice Roy said, “we are always happy to branch a bit further out for drop offs of coffee grounds.”
“We have a lot of users in the Dandenong Ranges and Yarra Valley because people have bigger properties and so there is more use for coffee grounds,” Ms Roy said.
“We are definitely looking at branching out and creating more of a permanent hub there.”
Currently Reground collects coffee grounds from approximately 300 venues in Melbourne who each pay a fee to have their grounds removed, and delivers them to community gardens and individuals who register to have deliveries.
Ms Roy said, “Many people know the impacts of sending plastic to landfill but in terms of numbers and emissions, organic waste has much more of a negative impact so diverting that from landfill is very impactful.”
“The coffee grounds, because they don’t have the space to decompose organically when they are under a pile of rubbish, it creates a lot of C02.”
“If it goes to people’s gardens, it will compost the way it is supposed to, and save a lot of emissions,” Ms Roy said.
Boronia resident and avid gardener Susie Colling has received three Reground deliveries so far.
Ms Colling said “I was planning to build a mini orchard and found Reground on instagram. The guys came out here in a van and delivered about a ton of coffee grounds that they’d picked up from cafes along the way.”
“Coffee grounds are highly nitrogen-filled so the citrus love it. I wasn’t too sure on how it would be with apples and local native plants as well but everything has just taken off.”
“Digging down into the ground in my garden, the amount of worms and the amount of rich soil is incredible. It is black and it has only taken six months to get to that stage,” Ms Colling said.
Having hit 1.5 million kilograms of coffee grounds diverted from landfill this year, Reground encourages locals to reach out via their website or start their own landfill diversion programme by reaching out to local cafes.
Ms Colling said, “My chooks absolutely love the coffee grounds. They don’t eat them but they dust bath in them. They go in white and come out cafe-late.”
“These grounds shouldn’t be thrown in the bin, they should be given to backyards or schools who want to grow gardens and be utilised,” Ms Colling said.
Deliveries can be booked via the Reground website.
