‘Give a sip’ about coffee waste

ELIZA Whitburn-Weber loves Ballarat’s hospitality scene, but the former café owner has discovered a gap in the market’s sustainable practices.

“The majority of coffee grounds are going to landfill, so we did some calculations and worked out that approximately 250 tonnes of coffee, in Ballarat alone, are going to landfill each year,” she said.

“We have a lot of local producers here, and we’ve realised we have an opportunity to close the loop.”

Ms Whitburn-Weber’s new business is GroundUp, set to soon collect coffee grounds and kitchen scraps from cafés and restaurants across the district.

This waste will then be delivered to local farms, who will be able to compost it, grow their produce, and supply it back to Ballarat venues.

GroundUp is all about a circular economy where produce can go from land-to-table, and back again.

Many enterprises from across the region are already on board, including Hydrant, Café Sidra, Lola, Little Bird, Cobbs Coffee, Drive, The Greenhouse Café, The Workshop Café, and The Hobbyist.

“A lot of venues have said this is something they’ve wanted for a long time,” Ms Whitburn-Weber said.

“Some give coffee grounds to their community’s keen home gardeners, but for a lot of these cafes, there’s too much coffee waste for the average home gardener to take home.”

A similar number of farms are willing to be resource recipients already, including Burrumbeet’s regenerative Sunnybank Farm, flower-growers and wineries.

Hydrant’s Elise Rowe said sustainability is a key value of her business.

“When we opened, we saw a huge amount of waste going out the door and into landfill. It’s an area that needs to be addressed for us, so to do it in this way with GroundUp is amazing,” she said.

“This concept has existed in other places, but not in Ballarat, so it’s wonderful.”

Participating cafés or restaurants will receive one or two wheely bins, depending on whether they’ve signed up for coffee-ground or kitchen food-scrap collection, or both.

Once a week, or fortnight, the GroundUp team will visit the venue, collecting their waste, and replacing the bin with a fresh one, before the grounds and scraps are taken to that day’s designated farm drop-off.

With a goal to be transparent, they will present quarterly reports about where scraps and grounds go, how much waste has been diverted from landfill, and CO2 reductions.

For every invoice generated, a tree will be purchased from 15 Trees, and planted.

“We’re making GroundUp simple, and we hope the program can be rolled out to other regions,” Ms Whitburn-Weber said.

“We’d like as many hospitality venues on board as possible to get Ballarat on the map for sustainability, but it’s the patrons that will make this successful.

“Go and have your coffee, or your lunch, and you’ll be supporting a café or restaurant that’s making a difference.”

Visit groundupcoffeerecyclers.com to “give a sip,” and check out who is taking part.