Kyoto’s mame-eco realizing the potential of coffee grounds and beyond

The energy of many goes into each cup of coffee that we drink. Coffee enriches our life. Coffee beans make their way to Japan for our enjoyment, but what do we do with the leftover coffee grounds in our homes and offices?

I visited Gary and Junko Bloom, who have started a Kyoto based coffee grounds recycling project called mame-eco. With help from volunteers, they collect coffee grounds from cafes, offices and homes, and distribute them to local farmers, who use them to make compost.

What are coffee grounds?

Coffee beans are grown in regions near the equator, such as Central and South America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. After being harvested, the beans are peeled, dried, and transported to Japan, where they are roasted at a roastery, ground into powder, and then extracted to make a cup of coffee. After you finish drinking, what remains are coffee grounds. In Japan, they are often discarded as burnable garbage at home and industrial waste at cafes and restaurants.

However, coffee grounds can easily be turned into a resource, so it is a waste to throw them away. This visit revealed the potential of coffee grounds and one simple and effective way to use them.

How is mame-eco promoting the upcycling of coffee grounds?

Using the traditional ‘machiya’ Kyoto style house where they live as a base, Gary, who is from California, and Junko, who was born and raised in Tokyo, get help collecting coffee grounds from five volunteers. And a growing number of local farmers use the grounds that they collect from over 50 cafes, offices, hotels and other places.

The project takes its name from a combination of “eco” with “mame,” the Japanese word for bean, which also carries the nuance of being used to describe things that are small. Used together, the name refers to small, grassroots eco-activities connected with coffee beans.

The seeds that eventually grew into a desire to launch mame-eco’s activities were planted in their minds when Gary saw a flyer from the local ward office calling on the public to intensify efforts to reduce household waste.

Junko: “We learned that at that time, about six years ago, the city had recently set a new target of reducing the amount of garbage by 30g per person per day, that that would be a meaningful step in helping the environment. So, gradually, we began to wonder what we could reduce.”

When the couple was looking for something to eliminate from their waste stream, the coffee grounds that remained after their daily cups of coffee caught their attention. Coffee grounds become heavy when wet, and the couple realized that they were throwing away about four kilograms of grounds each month.

Gary: “In various countries outside Japan, coffee grounds are commonly used by gardeners. Places like cafes put their coffee grounds in bags and write ‘free coffee grounds’ on them so customers can take them home. And in countries like Australia, there are companies that charge money to cafes to pick up their coffee grounds, which are then distributed to gardeners and farmers.”

They started thinking about how to put the coffee grounds produced daily to good use instead of discarding them.

However, it wasn’t easy to find a farmer who wanted to use the coffee grounds in the beginning, as they didn’t know anyone who was in that line of work. Therefore, to expand the scope of their appeal, the couple used Jimoty (a free internet bulletin board) in the hope of reaching out to farmers interested in using the coffee grounds. That’s when they connected with a farmer in Kameoka, Kyoto.

And with this simple but significant step, they were able to start putting coffee grounds to use.

Coffee grounds upcycling up close!

I visited a collection site to see how coffee grounds are collected from cafes and offices in Kyoto for upcycling.

Collection of coffee grounds

Collection at Sisam Fair Trade + design Office, Sakyo Ward. A week’s worth of coffee grounds packed in a reused bag.

Volunteer Shinohara, who makes weekly trips to shops and coworking spaces, separates the filters from the grounds and brings them to mame-eco. “Rather than just focusing on collecting large amounts, it’s more fun to also connect with my community!”

For cafes and other establishments that produce large amounts of coffee grounds, we ask them to put them in a bucket (together with the paper filters,) which gets replaced with an empty bucket upon collection. Thus, the collection is a simple and hassle-free matter.

Separating and storing coffee grounds

Paper filters are separated from collected coffee grounds. Single serving drip packs often contain materials that are difficult to decompose, so they are removed.

A farmer comes to pick up the grounds

The collected coffee grounds are stored in empty used fertilizer bags and passed to farmers who regularly come to pick them up. They strive to use recycled bags.

Mame-eco focuses on collecting coffee grounds and giving them to farmers. The farmers are familiar with how to use the coffee grounds, so each uses the grounds as they like and according to their own needs.

I was also shown how to make basic compost using coffee grounds. It’s straightforward, simply mixing coffee grounds, rice bran, and EM bacteria, then letting it sit. After it has had time to break down, it can be used as compost.

Coffee grounds can boost the nitrogen content of compost, allowing delicious vegetables to be harvested. In addition, some farmers have reported that when sprinkled near fig trees and certain other plants the damage caused by insects decreases, so they can be effective as an insect repellent as well..

Eating vegetables grown using coffee grounds!

These are eggplants from Funakoshi Farm, which grows vegetables using coffee grounds. The skin is shiny and the eggplant is plump. In the dish shown here, they are simmered together with deep-fried tofu. They were delicious, with a thin skin that melted in my mouth without any bitterness.

There are multiple sales points in Kyoto Prefecture for vegetables that were grown with the help of coffee grounds.

• JA Kyoto Farmers Market Tawawa Asagiri (30 Kamimata Nojo, Shinomachi, Kameoka City, Kyoto Prefecture)
  ・Vegetables from Ojirakuyu Farm (@ojirakuyu)
• Jinento Market (125 Takeda Aoikecho, Fushimi Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture)
  ・Oyster mushrooms and wood ear mushrooms from RE:ARTH (@kura_mush_room)
  ・Vegetables from Funakoshi Farm (@funa.osamu)

Should you be in the neighborhood or are visiting the area, please try picking up these fresh vegetables grown using coffee grounds.

mame-eco’s passion

Mame-eco’s activities, which contribute to the cultivation of delicious vegetables using coffee grounds, not only reduce waste, but also promote community ties and resource recycling.

Currently, about 1.5 tons of coffee grounds are collected and distributed every month, but going forward, increasing that amount is not one of mame-eco’s main goals.

Junko: “It’s a win-win for everyone when we recycle the coffee grounds that until recently, would have been thrown away. I would really like to see this sort of activity spread. We love coffee and drink it a lot. However, coffee comes from foreign countries, and that alone puts a burden on the environment. And that impact doesn’t end after the coffee is drunk, but working on what happens after that will allow me to enjoy coffee more fully with peace of mind.”

The couple wants other regions to imitate mame-eco’s activities or kickstart similar ones.

Junko: “If you find out about our activities and want to do something yourself, please give it a try. If you live in Kyoto, you can connect with mame-eco. Or, if you live further away, try finding someone interested in something similar, ideally creating a circular system within the region. It would be nice to increase the number of connections where farmers go directly to cafes to collect coffee grounds.”

What kind of eco-activities can we start easily?

I asked what kind of easy actions can be taken to reduce the amount of garbage we produce.

Gary: “If you cannot recycle them, you can at least reduce the weight of your coffee grounds by simply letting them dry in the sun for a few hours or so in the garden or on your balcony before discarding the coffee grounds. The illustration shows the weight of the coffee grounds after I brewed two cups of coffee. Right after brewing, the weight of the grounds is about three times heavier than before brewing because they contain moisture. In that state, more energy is required for transportation to the disposal facility and incineration. When the coffee grounds are drying, they do not smell much or attract many insects, so it’s very easy to get started.”

During the interview, I recalled when I was living alone and tried composting on my small balcony. I had no use for the finished compost, and the experiment led to a dead end. Surely there are more than a few people who have had the same experience.

Coffee grounds are one of the easiest kinds of food waste to deal with, so I have decided to ask my co-workers and neighbors to start the easy “drying before throwing away” idea.

Editor’s Note: Greatness from small beginnings

Very often, doubts creep into the minds of the individual, “What can I do? How can one person like me make a change significant enough?” We often underestimate the power of the individual and the strength of solidarity. The most powerful example we’ve seen in recent years is the rise of youths fighting the climate crisis.

Then again, taking eye-grabbing action is not something everyone can do. Not following the status quo and going against the system takes time, effort, dedication, and commitment.

Gary: “Different individuals have their personal struggles and challenges, so we cannot expect them to mimic those who have the capacity to take bigger, more impactful actions.

“However, we can all go for the low-hanging fruit. There’s no shame in taking small positive actions. If you are a business or have the technology, then it’s great you are going for the high-hanging ones. However, if we are unwilling to take the low-hanging fruits, how can we go for the high-hanging ones?”

There are two ends of a spectrum, not taking action and going 100%, and numerous shades in between. We shouldn’t let wording like “(absolute) zero waste” or “meatless” freeze us and keep us from taking action. Gary believes it is important to “walk through the door” of change.

That belief is reflected in the name “mame-eco.” mame-eco is not just demonstrating a sustainable model of tackling waste in Kyoto. It also sends a message that even individuals can take small actions that lead to great change.

To join mame-eco in their activities, visit their website here!

Originally published on Life Hugger, with an additional end note from editor.