We have reported previously on the value in coffee grounds as mulch for coffee-loving gardeners.

However, as reported in This is Cornwall, there is a new use of coffee grounds which can also help to grow plants in other ways.

This is a great ecological idea: to use the ‘waste’ product from coffee to grow other foodstuffs.

Given the global love of coffee and the amount consumed on a daily basis, this is surely a consideration worth making note of.

So what’s the story?

Adam Sayner and Eric Jong are mushroom farmers and they run GroCycle.

The have found a way to use the coffee grounds which are ‘waste’ products from the coffee industry (and which would otherwise go to landfill) to grow mushrooms.

How are mushrooms normally grown?

On sawdust which has been especially sterilised for the purpose (which is uses energy and is expensive).

Coffee, however, is sterile for 24 hours after the coffee-making process and so is excellent for mushroom growing.

Given the number of people that drink coffee, this is a great way to make use of the remains of their drinks.

Rather impressively, the couple have created one of the first urban mushroom farms in Britain in unused office premises in Exeter.

This unusual venue has the advantages of being close to sources of coffee grounds and also close to shops and restaurants for delivery of the mushrooms within hours of being harvested.