New Kent coffee grounds recycling scheme turns waste into plant pellets

A Kent family business is playing its part to help recycle some of the 250,000 tonnes of used coffee grounds the UK produces every year to make our daily cappuccino, latte or flat white, with the launch of a countywide scheme.

The scheme, launched in Canterbury by Countrystyle Recycling, the countywide waste management operator, will collect used coffee grounds from independent cafés and restaurants, as well as retail chains, hotels and visitor attractions.

Designed to help businesses improve their environmental performance, the recycling scheme provides its customers with 40 litre caddies to store the spent grounds before they are collected every week.

The used coffee grounds are taken to Countrystyle’s sister company in Cambridgeshire, where they are processed and turned into coffee pellets. Launching next year, the horticultural pellets will be available in gardens centres and sold to horticulturalists.

Currently a large proportion of the coffee grounds produced by the leisure and hospitality industry are collected in their general waste and go to landfill, with a portion collected as food waste for composting or taken to anaerobic digestion plants.

For each tonne of coffee that is collected and turned into coffee fertiliser pellets the carbon saving is 580kgs of CO₂ compared to sending it to landfill. That is the equivalent to driving 1,400 miles in a typical family car.

Martin Heathcote, Chief Executive Officer of Countrystyle Recycling said: “Improving environmental sustainability and providing innovative waste management solutions is at the heart of everything we do for our customers, whether they are big or small.

“The response to our coffee recycling scheme from the hotel, leisure and hospitality sector has been tremendous and we look forward to rolling out the service across Kent over the next few months.

“We can do more to protect our environment when it comes to recycling and repurposing materials, and this coffee ground project is a perfect example. If you enjoy a coffee at one of the cafes working with Countrystyle you are diverting coffee grounds from landfill.

“We’ve developed a system which processes the coffee grounds into pellets to be used by gardeners and horticulturalists as they provide essential nutrients for plant growth. The plan is that the pellets will be available through garden centres early next year.”

The scheme was launched at Café No35, on St Margaret’s Street, Canterbury. Anna Carpenter, the café’s owner said: “It’s great to be a part of this great initiative from Countrystyle that makes a difference to the environment. It was very straight forward to join the scheme and the dedicated caddy makes it really easy to recycle our coffee grounds. I’d encourage more businesses to take part.”

The initiative was welcomed by Canterbury BID, the organisation which champions the city as a vibrant, exciting, well-connected and successful business community.

Lisa Carlson, Chief Executive of Canterbury BID, added: “This initiative is an example of one business making a difference to the environmental efforts of lots of businesses. Thank you Countrystyle for setting up such a positive initiative that helps a large number of organisations reduce their carbon footprint.”

For further information on the coffee recycling scheme visit: https://www.countrystylerecycling.co.uk/our-services/coffee-grounds-recycling/