Ground for Ground -Rationale

Ground for Ground is an integrated system that enables cafes to repurpose their used coffee grounds, while also benefitting the local community and gaining customer involvement.

Each year Australian's use in excess of 2.3kg of coffee beans (per capita) in brewing coffee (SMH, Coffee by Numbers, July 18, 2006).  The vast majority of these beans end up in landfill, owing to no formal recycling systems.

Despite this dearth of recycling, coffee grounds are, in fact, easily recycled.  Used coffee beans are a superb form of compost for plants. Used coffee grounds are a natural source of nitrate, phosphorus and potassium which are key nutrients for plants. According to Soil and Plant Laboratory Inc, used coffee grounds can "substantially improve availabilities of phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and copper and will probably negate the need for chemical sources of these plant essential elements" (adapted from Sunset.com/garden/earth-friendly).

Used coffee grounds have the additional benefit over general food waste, in that the grounds require no treatment before applying to soil.

The Ground for Ground system works in the following manner:
1. Cafe collects used grounds in specially designed Ground for Ground bins
2. Used grounds are collected regularly
3. Used grounds are deposited at local depot
4. Local depot allocates grounds to council lands, local schools, playing fields, golf courses, etc

Additionally, a smaller proportion of the gounds are kept at the cafes, and offered directly to customers to use in thier own gardens.

The Ground for Ground PSS, aims to make the recycling process simple for cafes to adopt, while also providing a branding that will benefit cafes associated with the program.

To ensure simplicity and ease of adoption, a group of Ground for Ground cafe products was designed.  The Ground for Ground bin has been designed to be used as both a bin and a stool.  This way, cafes can use excess bins to provide simple seating.  Move over milk crate!  The additional interaction through the stool, also increases customer awareness of the system.  This is key to enabling customer awareness and subsequent involvement.

The knock-out stand has been designed to fit two bins (one in use, and one ready for replacement).  The height is comparable to existing knock-out tubes (910mm compared to 860mm).  However, the benefit is that cafe staff can easily remove a full bin of grounds without undue bending, etc.

The ground server offers customers an opportunity to collect grounds for their garden.  The height of the shelf is in-line with that of the knock-out stand.  This allows for a linear carriage from the stand to the ground server. The upper shelf is designed to hold the Grounds to Go container, while a customer pours grounds into it.  The shelf itself is sloped to ensure that wayward grounds fall back into the bin.