Wrexham Café Gives Away Used Coffee Grounds To Perk Up Gardens

Divina Quin, manager at Starbucks, Eagles Meadow, Wrexham with regular customer Arthur Roberts from Trevor after he picked up the coffee grounds for use in his garden.

Used coffee grounds from a cafe are being used to perk up gardens in Wrexham.

Starbucks at Eagles Meadow is handing out free bags of the nitrogen-rich grounds to customers.

Manager Divina Quin says the grounds are a wonderful nutritional soil additive and each day the used grounds are saved and bagged ready for the green-fingered coffee lovers.

She explained: “During the brewing process most of the acidity is removed from the coffee beans leaving used grounds with an average ph of 6.9 and a carbon-nitrogen ratio of 20-to-1.

“By adding grounds directly to gardens and applying this green material as a side dressing to nitrogen-loving plants, including most perennials and alliums it can have a really beneficial effect on gardens and allotments.

“Grounds can prove particularly beneficial when mixed with brown materials such as leaves or dried grass.

“It also makes a wonderful additive to compost. Combined with brown material, it can really help make a good compost particularly if used within two or three weeks of brewing.”

“The bags of used coffee grounds are becoming increasingly popular with our customers.”

Retired fire officer and dedicated Starbucks customer Arthur Roberts, 85, from Trevor praised the café’s initiative.

He is adding used coffee grounds to his flower beds this year to help improve the soil.

He said: “It seems like a great idea to me and its good that Starbucks are giving away the used grounds for free.

“I grow quite a lot of flowers such as geraniums, daffodils and other flowers and I am hoping the grounds will help me put on a good show.

“My late wife was the real gardener and she would have loved the idea of making use of waste material such as coffee grounds as a soil additive so I am definitely giving it a go.”

The initiative is helping to underline the shopping centre’s green credentials after it recently revealed that 93 per cent of the waste materials from Eagles Meadow are recycled.