Starbucks has joined forces with The Allotments & Gardens Council UK to offer green-fingered gardeners the chance to pick up coffee grounds from their local store to use on there plants, as the grounds can help boost plant growth.
The “Grounds For Your Garden” scheme sees Starbucks stores across the UK donating bags of used coffee to customers, encouraging gardeners to use coffee waste as a natural fertilizer and help boost crop growth, in collaboration with The Allotments & Gardens Council UK, which is helping promote the idea to its members.
According to the Allotments & Gardens Council UK, coffee grounds provide a great long-term way to enrich soil and eliminate the need for other fertilisers, and they can also speed up the composting process – making them the perfect natural material to use in private gardens, allotments and outdoor spaces.
The “Grounds For Your Garden” scheme is seen as an ideal way to reuse waste, as even the packaging is reused; baristas scoop used coffee grounds into the empty bags originally used to deliver espresso beans to stores. All customers need to do to get involved in the scheme is to pick up a free bag of used coffee grounds, which will be located by the check out in their local Starbucks store, or they can ask their barista.
Jeff Bond, board member for The Allotments and Gardens and Council UK, commented: “Our members are always looking for new ways to boost their crop growth and this scheme really benefits gardeners in local communities who may not have access to this natural fertiliser. Used coffee grounds are high in nitrogen so they are fantastic for plant growth and we can use them for growing a range of plants on the allotments from, tomatoes to marrows and even pumpkins!”
Clare Walker, communications director for Starbucks UK, said: “Thank you to the Allotments and Gardens Council UK for shining a spotlight on this programme, which we have offered in our stores for 20 years. We’re committed to reducing waste from our stores, and it’s a great opportunity to support local gardeners and allotment keepers too!”