HY-brid/

Hoffman York’s Milwaukee office drinks a lot of coffee—an estimated 180 pots per month. Apparently, we’re not morning people. But we are conscientious people—and that’s a lot of coffee grounds to be throwing out every month. Especially since those coffee grounds would make excellent fertilizer for our gardens. So HY-brid sprung into action, establishing a Coffee Grounds Recycling Program.  

HY-brid Coffee Grounds Recycling Bin

Instead of throwing our used grounds into the trash, we place them in coffee grounds recycling bins. (To create our bins, we recycled five-gallon containers from a school cafeteria.) Our Coffee Grounds Recycling Program encourages employees to take grounds home for fertilizing their gardens and catalyzing their composts. They can either take the whole bucket home, or bring in their own reusable container.

The program has been entirely self-sustaining. Grounds are deposited as people empty the filter basket to make a new pot of coffee. Bins are emptied as employees gradually take grounds home for fertilizer.

The best part? It’s had a surprising ROI. We invested very little time and money into making the bins. Yet, our Coffee Grounds Recycling Program is having a powerful impact on our environment and employees. It’s keeping grounds out of landfills and energizing our plants. It’s spreading an interest in green. And it’s actually improved employee morale by creating an interesting sense of team.

Here are a few of the sites we visited, in the process of doing research on coffee grounds recycling.

http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/02/24/climate-for-action/

http://soil.gsfc.nasa.gov/soilfert/npk.htm

http://www.slate.com/id/2178595/

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080707171641.htm

http://environmentalism.suite101.com/article.cfm/co2_not_the_only_greenhouse_gas

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/282805/soluble_salt_damage_the_secret_killer.html?cat=32

The coffee grounds recycling bin in action! (When we're not making coffee, we usually keep the lid on.)

Establishing a Coffee Grounds Recycling Program is just one of the many no-cost/low-cost efforts a business can make to be more environmentally friendly and get its employees excited about green. And if you drink coffee like we at Hoffman York seem to, establishing a Coffee Grounds Recycling Program could be a great way to put all that caffeine to work. (Aside from the increased productivity, of course.)

Categories: Diana Bagley, green at work