A recycling program to divert more than three tonnes of spent coffee grounds from landfill into luscious green grass has worked a treat at Country Club Tasmania.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The spent grounds have been mixed with horse manure from feisty resident mare Harmony, and the results are both environmentally friendly and easy on the eye.
Both the vast gardens and golf course have benefitted from the innovative scheme.
Country Club food and beverage manager Robyn McInerney said the scheme had been working wonders.
"We've been running this coffee sustainability program for two years and it started in the Watergarden Cafe has a little trial project to see if we could manage it and it's just gone gangbusters," she said.
"The coffee grounds get collected, taken to Colin Bonney our gardener and the stables and compost is created.
"As you can see the grounds are beautifully maintained and spectacular."
Ms McInerney said the idea came from the suppliers of the coffee to the Country Club.
"It came from Grinders Coffee, the company we use here as part of a program that they were running nationally and we picked it up and thought that was a great idea," she said.
"We wanted to divert coffee grounds away from landfill and we thought we could use them in a better way."
Ms McInerney said looking at ways of reducing the Country Clubs' environmental footprint was a no brainer.
"When the Country Club's former coffee rep proposed the idea in 2019 we were champing at the bit to get it underway," she said. "The prospect of keeping our grounds and golf course lush, green and healthy while helping the environment at the same time was a no brainer and we've enjoyed seeing the results around the property.
"Harmony the horse is also a highly valued member of the Country Club team, and it's wonderful that we can utilise her waste and complete a closed-loop recycling system. When added to landfill, coffee grounds produce methane which has a warming potential far greater than carbon dioxide so it's great to be able to divert what would otherwise be greenhouse gas-producing waste and use it for good."
Mr Bonney said originally he would collect the grounds and toss them on the compost, where they would sit for months at a time.
"I've used them over in the villas and thought we would try them out there," he said. "One of the projects with them I'm going to start next week is to mix the grounds with potting mix and put some tomato plants in there and see what happens."