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Mushrooms are the New Coffee Grinds. Literally.

Mushrooms are the New Coffee Grinds. Literally.

One of the big new discoveries in our trash is coffee grinds and it smells amazing.

Straight out of our yesterday's trash, coffee grinds are powering worm farms, garden soils, body scrubs and now mushroom farms. Mushroom farms in shipping containers and mushroom farms in every day kitchens across Australia. Brought to you by Life Cykel.



After launching Life Cykel in Fremantle in 2015, Ryan Creed and Julian Mitchell hit Kickstarter and raised $31,000 to kick off in Melbourne in 2016. Now in 4 states and employing 17 people with disability in 3 of those states, Life Cykel are diverting nearly 1,000 kg of cafe waste each week into their shipping container farms and growing mushrooms which they sell back to the cafes. 



Life Cykel literally collect coffee grounds from cafes, use it to grow gourmet mushrooms in their shipping container farms and sell the mushrooms back to the food service industry. Once the mushrooms have fruited and been picked, the mushroom infested coffee grindings are sold as a soil amendment for local gardens.

Life Cykel are living the no waste business dream at every turn. They now also sell grow it yourself boxes online to more than 500 homes, and growing a huge following. The boxes were first for growing mushrooms, but they now also have a micro greens version.

The mushrooms are dead simple to grow for even the brownest thumb and just need to be placed close to a window, but not in direct sunlight and then misted and watered as instructed. Each mushroom box grows around two crops, with the current record being seven! (A box is about $28).

There are an increasing number of business models growing around coffee grinds. Mallow Sustainability in Brisbane started with grinds and now collect all cafe and restaurant food waste. They feed the waste to their huge worm farms and grow organic produce which they sell back to the food service industry. Mallow Sustainability have chosen to stay on the service side of the ledger and are expanding into residential food waste collection. 


Images: Life Cykel
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