Coffee grounds

Coffee grounds
back to the ground

Once the coffee’s gone, the grounds still have plenty to give: compost, mushrooms, even art. Since 2022 we’ve been taking coffee shops’ grounds to the places that need them.

Used coffee grounds on a filter beside bags of beans
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With Blue Bottle Coffee

Since 2022 we’ve collected grounds twice a month from Blue Bottle Coffee on Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, and taken them to The Pioneer Farm in Kam Tin and to Ngau Tam Mei for compost. In 2026 a new destination joined: local artists who upcycle them into work.

In Tuen Mun, the coffee shops on Tseng Choi Street are some of our biggest Food Waste Researcher partners — grounds make up a large share of what we collect.

A researcher collecting grounds outside a coffee shop on Tseng Choi Street
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Coffee grounds runners (in the works)

“Runners who end up green,
green folks who end up fit.”

We’re preparing a new experiment: neighbours walking or running along the Tuen Mun River to carry Tseng Choi Street’s coffee grounds to a mushroom farm in Lam Tei. The hope is that one day neighbours keep it going themselves. Details on Instagram when it’s ready.

Run a coffee shop?

Tell us where you are and roughly how many grounds you have each week.