Survey – Want to Collect Coffee Grounds But Can’t Because…

Time to publish results of the third coffee grounds survey posted onto Ground to Ground.

The question is – Want to collect coffee grounds but can’t coz…

38% – Asked the Coffee Shop and they said NO!
24% – Grounds are too heavy to carry home
22% – No coffee shop nearby
8% – Don’t have a large enough garden to use coffee grounds
5% – The people I live with don’t like the smell
3% other (1% The demand at Starbucks)

And here is a nice image to make it all official:

Analysis of the Survey Results

The cafe said NO: It is always tough to get around to asking a coffee shop for their grounds, and then they say no. There will always be a minority that say no, but is that really a reason to stop looking for the ones that say yes?

Keep at it and you will find the right coffee shops to deal with. And when you do – add them to the coffee grounds map.

Too much / too heavy to carry: OK so both of these can happen, and is one of those good problems to have. Keep in mind that coffee grounds are a nitrogen fertilizer and soil conditioner and all those other things, so just take what you can and be very careful about carrying heavy bags around.

There has been more than one occasion where I have found myself walking with a 20 kilo of coffee grounds and realized that the next 500 meters to the train station were going to be painful ones. In the end I held the bag in a bear hug and hoped the plastic wouldn’t rip on a button.

No coffee shop nearby: All the more reason to make it yourself! Don’t drink coffee? Tea bags will do just fine in the compost and the worm farm.

If you need your used coffee grounds fix, consider a mobile cafe as an option. Maybe they can stop by and drop off their grounds?

Don’t have a large enough garden to use them: There might still be a couple of options – you can have a small compost bin, and a worm farm takes next to no space.

A compost bin can burn through coffee grounds quick, so worth a look.

As for a worm farm, those little guys have a particular fondness for coffee grounds and will happily eat as much as you give them. The resulting vermicast goes fine directly added to pot plants.

The people I live with don’t like the smell: OK fair enough. A bag of fresh used coffee grounds kind of smells like an ashtray, especially in a confined space like inside a car, or on the train.

I know it is so because people on the train stare at the black plastic bag between my feet and must be wondering what the hell that smell is. Sometimes they actually ask and it starts a whole conversation about collecting coffee grounds.

Other – The demand at Starbucks: Plenty more coffee shops out there besides Starbucks, and they are all making the same grounds for your garden.

Thank you to all of you that took part in this survey, and hope you continue to share your experiences and knowledge for the benefit of everyone who visits the site.

And if you have not yet had some input into this important question – here it is!