So yesterday I put out containers for collecting used coffee grounds at a couple of the coffee-brewing stations in the building where I work. On the containers, I wrote, “Please recycle coffee grounds here.”
Today, a note was attached to one of them that said:
“Are you kidding? Why?”
Now I don’t know who wrote that, so I don’t know anything about who they are. But it just hit me as an indication of how disconnected some of us are from the cycles of growth and decomposition that keep us alive. A gardener sees dead organic matter and thinks, “I could compost that and turn it into something that would really help the plants in my garden grow.” A non-gardener sees dead organic matter and thinks, “Filth. Dispose of it.”
Many of us still believe that when food we were eating a few moments before hits the garbage can, it becomes something disgusting that must be put in a plastic bag and sent to the landfill. Many of us still try as hard as we can to believe that death and decomposition do not exist, when they are just as essential to life as are birth and growth. I think that, at least in part, explains the problem people have with treating dead organic matter as a resource instead of garbage to be disposed of.
Anyway, I taped a reply to the outside of the container:
Why Recycle Coffee Grounds?
- One less thing to go the landfill
- They can be used to feed plants which can feed people.
For more info, including a chemical analysis, see http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/compost.asp- Added directly to soil
- Composted
- Fed to worms
Ending and Beginning 
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