Collecting Coffee Grounds – Communications

Continuing on now to part two of how to start Collecting Coffee Grounds from the Office with work colleagues. The following are a series of communications that will come in handy. All of them have been field tested and the response has been great.

Where you see these markers [LOCATION] this is a prompt you for to customise the text, and even if your situation is different to mine (as in I’m in a city office building), at least there is something here to start with.

It is easy to get this started, you just got to start

1. When you are ready to invite others to start collecting coffee grounds

Company Intranet Article Title

Collecting Coffee Grounds for compost and the garden – an opportunity

Subject

An invitation to express your interest for collecting used coffee grounds from [LOCATION] for the compost bin or into the garden

BODY TEXT START

What’s all the fuss about Coffee Grounds?

Coffee  grounds are one of the best natural soil additives available, being relatively high in  nitrogen (similar to grass clippings), and when  added to the compost bin will speed up decomposition and give you beautiful, black, rich compost.

There is also the added benefit  that coffee grounds help keep away  snails, slugs, ants, and cats. Even better, they attract ground worms to  your garden in large numbers.

As a final benefit, used coffee grounds are free!

An opportunity for us at [LOCATION]

We have made arrangements with our Facilities management for all coffee grounds generated within this building to be collected for our exclusive use.

This represents a unique and leading initiative, which has the potential to be replicated in a large number of offices.

Your chance to make a difference

If you have a vegetable garden, a compost bin, lots of lawn, and so on…   please express your interest in taking part. The more people we have, the less of this amazing natural product needs to go to waste.

Just email [YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS] for details.

END

2. You will need to get back to all the good people that volunteered to start collecting coffee grounds from the office

Email Purpose – Response to the emails received by having the Coffee Grounds article on website / intranet

TO: Ground to Ground List

Subject: Collecting Coffee Grounds for compost and the garden – Roster Arrangements

Guys,

Thank you for the fantastic response to the website / intranet article.

I’ve been collecting coffee grounds for some time now, both from this office and local cafes. About [QUANTITY] of it has ended up in my compost, vegetable garden, worm farm, or to friends and neighbours.
I setup a group called Ground to Ground, to promote the better use of coffee grounds by providing information and resources on the subject, and there are some other office buildings and cafes already involved.

You can learn more about coffee grounds for the garden from the blog – http://groundtoground.org. There are plenty of other sites on the web that cover this topic also – just do a search that includes ‘coffee grounds’, but hopefully the Ground to Ground site has most of what you need.

As for how we collect the grounds from the building, it is fairly easy. Each day the cleaners collect the coffee grounds and put them into a special bin on the basement floor. I pick them up a few times a week. Not exactly sure how we do this with the numbers but it will need to be a low maintenance  system that can adjust to the volume of grounds coming in and keep it fair for everyone.

Just give me a few days to confirm the numbers and then will send out the details, and thanks again for getting involved.

Regards,
[YOUR NAME]

3. If you had a large response and/or are in a large office building, then you might need to run a couple of walk throughs of how you want coffee grounds collecting to work

Email Purpose – Meeting Invites

TO: Ground to Ground List

Subject: Collecting Coffee Grounds for compost and the garden

Hi all,

This is one of [TWO, THREE, FOUR] timeslots today for introductions and to take you through to where the coffee grounds are stored. There should be enough time to also discuss tips on getting them home and if you are new to this we should also cover off the best ways of making use of the grounds.

See you on ground floor, and we can make our way from there.

Regards,
[YOUR NAME]

4. If you had a big turnout then you might need to setup a roster to collect the grounds. Try to avoid setting up one that requires overhead, otherwise you will spend all your time managing that and not your ‘other’ job.

Email Purpose – Setting up the Roster Rules

TO: Ground to Ground List

Subject: Collecting Coffee Grounds for compost and the garden – Roster Arrangements

Hi all,

It has been a great pleasure meeting with you during those [ONE, TWO, THREE] overview sessions, with a final one planed for [DATE&TIME]. If for any reason you can’t make it, let me know when you have some spare time for a one on one walk through.

Simple Rules to Get Things Started

A simple, self maintaining roster needs to be in placed given our numbers.

If your surname is from A to M – collect any time you like in the First and Third full weeks of the month.

If your surname is from N to Z – collect any time you like in the Second and Fourth full weeks of the month.

This week is the [FIRST, SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH] full week of the month, so for all the [A to Ms / N to Zs] – feel free to start collecting now.

Ground Coffee hints and tips

• Keep an eye out for the traffic on the basement level, as it can get busy down there.
• Put the grounds into a stronger bag or backpack for the journey home. If you are parked in the carpark that is less of an issue.
• Don’t keep the bag sealed up for more than 1 week, otherwise (like most ‘green’ organic material) it is going to start to break down, get mouldy, and start fermenting in there.
• Other material may be included in the bags (paper, tea bags, fruit), and this is all fine in the compost bin. For a sealed worm farm however, be mindful of citrus and NO pineapple.
• Given our numbers, it may take some time to adjust the quantity with the demand. You might want to help me to remind some of the cafes that it is not too hard to do the right thing!
• Try not to carry too much in one go. It is a long walk to the train station with a 10 kilo shopping bag.

Where to Go For Help

If there is anything about coffee grounds you want to discuss, just give me a call or have a look through the Ground to Ground site at http://groundtoground.org. You can also join us at Facebook (on the right of the Ground to Ground site is a tile that will take you there, or just do a search for Ground to Ground), and updates from other members are posted from there also.

Your level of involvement from here is up to you, and consider the positive impact you are now making and how involving others increases that impact.

Thank you all for getting involved to make a difference.

Regards,
[YOUR NAME]

5. Keep your fellow Grounders up to date with roster info and how the coffee grounds are going to go in the garden or compost depending on external factors (because you are the expert). Don’t need to do this every week, just a quick message every now and again to let people know you are still around.

Email Purpose – Starting the Roster Email

TO: Ground to Ground List

Subject: Collecting Coffee Grounds for compost and the garden

Hi guys,

Just a reminder that this is the first week of the month, so if your surname is from A to M – we have coffee grounds waiting to find a good home.

Keep in mind that the grounds we collect from the cafes will generally have a finer grade of coffee grounds that is better suited to the compost.

If you do take one of the large cafe bags, just be mindful of the weight if you are going home via public transport.

Now is a good time to get the grounds onto the garden or into the compost bin, given the rain we have had over the weekend, and with possible follow-ups this week. It is a good time because the grounds will detract the snails and slugs that are going to start coming out now, and when left on the garden with all this rain and moderately warm temperatures, they will breakdown quickly.

If you have any questions just let me know, and enjoy this great week.

Regards,
[YOUR NAME]