Excelso Coffee endeavours to reduce the amount of waste we produce, recycle as much as possible instead of throwing away, and reuse items where possible. Give us a call (0800 578 2832) or call in to our factory to pick up any of the following items free of charge. We give them away so we may not always have a supply - you may want to check first.
Coffee Grinds
Every day across the world millions of cups of coffee are consumed. The coffee grounds that are left over can be recycled very effectively in the garden.
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Sprinkle used grounds around plants before rain or watering for a slow-release nitrogen. The dark colour also absorbs heat from the sun and can help the soil to warm up.
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Add to compost piles to increase nitrogen balance. Coffee filters break down rapidly during composting too. The carbon to nitrogen ratio of coffee grounds is similar to grass clippings and because it is ground, it will break down faster.
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Dilute with water for a gentle, fast-acting liquid fertiliser. Add the grounds to your watering can, let it warm up a bit and you will have a nitrogen-rich feed that you can use on your plants. The feed will be slightly acidic - good for use on acid-loving plants such as camellias, azaleas, gardenias, hydrangeas, rhododendrons and blueberries.
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Mix into soil for houseplants or new vegetable gardens.
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Encircle the base of the plant with a coffee and eggshell barrier to repel pests. Slugs and snails don't like the caffeine or the gritty texture of coffee. If cats are a problem using your garden as a litter box, they may get 'confused' with the smell of coffee and 'go' elsewhere.
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If you have worms in your compost, they love coffee.
Chaff is a by-product of coffee roasting and breaks down even more quickly than coffee grounds.
Coffee Sacks
We have a wide range of coffee sacks with different 'weave' and patterns. They can be used for many things and below we have listed some of them:
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pets like to lie on them
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gardeners use them for weed-matting
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worm farmers cover worms with sacking and eventually the worms eat them
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local groups have used them for the traditional 'hangi'
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90 year old Rita Thwaites of Tauranga uses them for lining her home made oven mitts
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students have used them for making 'wearable art'
Newspapers & Packaging
There is always an overabundance newspapers, packaging and cartons to deal with when bringing and sending out coffee. Following are some the initiatives we take to reduce and recycle these items:
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we wrap our smaller packages in roll-ends from the local newspaper company
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we send some of our daily newspapers to a local company to shred and use in their packaging and we use the rest to package 'breakables' and machines
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boxes/cartons from inwards goods are recycled to use for our outwards goods
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any bubble-wrap or styrofoam chips are also re-used to package our outwards good
