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Seoul conducts pilot project to reuse coffee dregs as compost

August 1, 2016

SEOUL, Aug. 1 (Yonhap) — The Seoul metropolitan government on Monday started a two-month pilot project to reuse coffee dregs coming from 45 coffee houses in the city’s Jongno Ward as a compost for mushroom growing and fodder, city officials said.

Under the project, the local government has assigned an unspecified social enterprise to collect an average 2.5 tons of spent coffee grounds produced daily from the coffee shops three times a week and create a composite for cultivating mushrooms or other environment-friendly composts.

The social enterprise is also picking up used disposal coffee cups from the shops and recycling them.

According to data released by the local government, the amount of spent coffee grounds generated in the South Korean capital was estimated at 140 tons a day in 2014. They have been dumped along with household refuse due to a lack of system for collecting and recycling them.

“Even the purchasing cost for trash bags needed to dump these coffee dregs amounts to 1.1 billion won (around US$991,884) a year,” the city government said.

 

An employee collects coffee dregs at a coffee shop in Seoul's Jongno Ward on Aug. 1, 2016, as the shop takes part in a pilot project, implemented by the Seoul metropolitan government, to reuse them as a compost for mushroom growing or fodder.

An employee collects coffee dregs at a coffee shop in Seoul’s Jongno Ward on Aug. 1, 2016, as the shop takes part in a pilot project, implemented by the Seoul metropolitan government, to reuse them as a compost for mushroom growing or fodder.

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