Starbucks for coffee grounds!

All of the local Starbucks have changed to drive-through only service due to the increase in Covid cases.  So, grounds are no longer being made available. I hate to think of them going to the landfill, but we don't have a choice right now.

Stopped by a Starbucks yesterday on the way home from the mall and picked up some grounds.  They had two large bags of grounds, each weighing about 40# or so, and a "bucket" full of bags of grounds that were used to make iced coffee.   Since all of the raised beds have been put to bed for the winter, I pulled back the straw on three of them and spread the grounds over them and returned the straw. All of the filters were thrown into the compost bin. 

Picked up 40# of coffee grounds from Starbucks. Separated out the coffee filters and crushed the "pucks" from the expresso machine, and then spread a layer of them on the raised bed in the greenhouse. Used about half of the grounds on the 2'x6' bed.  I've only seen about half-dozen earthworms in this bed, but I'm sure they'll enjoy the coffee grounds as much as the plants will.   

Stopped by Starbucks this afternoon to check on available coffee grounds. They had one bag of grounds in the bucket, which I was collecting. As I was ready to go out the door, one of the crew came out and told me they had some more grounds in the back if I wanted them. Of course I wanted them. She brought out two more large bags full of grounds. I ended up with three bags of grounds, each of them weighing between 40 and 50 pounds. The compost bin will be happy with these grounds. The earthworms are going to love the compost bin this winter, since this is the third large batch of used coffee grounds added to it.

Picked up some more coffee grounds today, from a different Starbucks. That is a 6 cu ft wheelbarrow, and it is about full of grounds.  I hope the compost likes Pumpkin Spice.  



This compost bin was emptied to top off the raised beds, and it is now starting to turn into new Black Gold with composted coffee grounds.

donnainzone5 wrote:Isn't it true that only 10% of the compost materials should consist of coffee grounds?  Gigantic piles or bins, I'm sure, can accommodate this limitation.

I honestly don't know where that conventional wisdom came from, nor why. I suspect that some think that coffee grounds are too high in nitrogen, so they can't be a high percentage of the compost which is not true. Yet, others think that coffee grounds are too acidic to compost, which also not true. Don't know what is magic about 10%. Used coffee grounds are neutral.

Several times I have filled a compost tumbler with nothing but coffee grounds & filters and pine pellets, and it made some of the best compost I have ever had.  During the summer months I lightly spread coffee grounds on the raised beds around the plants. The nightcrawlers come to the surface at night and pull the coffee grounds down into the soil where they either decompose or are turned into worm castings. They are great at enriching the soil and feeding the plants.

During winter months I can't use the coffee grounds in either the compost tumblers, nor on the raised beds, so I just pile them to collect over the winter. The earthworms quickly move into the pile of grounds and break them down into compost and worm castings.

When you ask Starbucks to save coffee grounds for you, they may take you seriously!  When I called yesterday morning to ask if they would save the grounds for me, the manager told me he still had a couple bags from the day before and asked if I wanted those too. I told him I would take all that they have. When I went in around 5:00pm they had 7 large bags saved for me. Each of them weighed between 40# and 50#. Surprisingly, there was no trash in them this time, either. That wheelbarrow is 6 cu ft, and it is full of grounds.