If there’s one thing we love more than a strong, steaming cup of early morning coffee, it’s making sure as little food and drink is wasted as possible in our stores. That’s why the leftover grounds from our café cuppas are now free to a good garden - to use as a natural fertiliser. You can now ask Morrisons café staff for used coffee grounds to use on your garden (selected stores only and subject to availability). The grounds act as a natural fertiliser, so it’s great news for gardeners and their plants, and even better news for our fight against waste.
Used coffee grounds are a source of nitrogen which plants need in order to grow. They also encourage the growth of micro-organisms and are thought to attract earthworms, which tunnel through the soil and allow air and water to get to roots.
‘Get up and grow’
Coffee grounds aren’t just great for perking us humans up. Whether you’re a seasoned gardener, or just a beginner looking to get things going, you can compost the used coffee grounds or put them directly into the soil around your plants to give them a boost too. Putting it directly into the soil also adds organic matter to the planting area, which improves the soil’s water retention to give your Petunias, Geraniums, Sweet Peas and Begonias a better chance of blooming this summer. If you want to make your own natural fertiliser, switch to a cafetiere and use the leftover coffee grounds from your morning cuppa on the garden.
Dr David Moon, Head of Sustainable Food WRAP says: “It’s great to see a ‘waste material’ being used in a beneficial way like this and we welcome Morrison’s decision. Even something as seemingly worthless as spent coffee still has environmental and economic benefits, which in this case are being shared with Morrisons’ shoppers.”
