2018 2018: Grounds to Ground

Dining Services is leading the way to a greener future and creating innovative sustainability initiatives.

Students drink a lot of coffee—approximately 11,600 cups per week across campus at all Dining locations. With this, comes waste.

But, this past January, Dining Services created an initiative that would greatly reduce the amount of coffee grounds ending up in landfills.

“We saw all of these coffee grounds going into the trash and thought there had to be a way to be less wasteful,” Mike Casey, Director of Retail Operations said. Thus, Grounds to Ground was created.

The used coffee grounds from the Marketplace, Corsair Café, Catered events and the Library Café are collected at the end of the day. Twice a week, Sid Wainer & Son, a New Bedford produce distributer, picks up the used coffee grounds and distributes them to local farms.

At the local farms, the grounds are mixed into the soil, topped with recycled paper and utilized as compost. These coffee grounds, which would normally end up in a landfill, go back to the earth to assist in the growth of future, fresh produce.