From Cup to Compost: Grounds for Your Garden Gives Used Coffee Grounds New Life
For more than 30 years, Grounds for Your Garden has helped turn coffee waste into a resource.
When coffeehouse leader Candice-Leigh opened her Starbucks coffeehouse in Elmira, Ontario, she saw an opportunity. With a background in forest conservation and a passion for sustainability, she understood the value of organic materials and circular systems. Without an existing organics program in place, she worked with her team to build one from the ground up, creating dedicated spaces to collect used coffee grounds and make them available to the community.
“We wanted to make it easy to be sustainable and divert waste,” she says. “Once partners (employees) understood the big impact each one of us can have through small changes, it became part of our daily routine.”
That routine is part of something much bigger. Through Starbucks Grounds for Your Garden program, used coffee grounds are offered free of charge at participating company-operated coffeehouses across Canada. Packaged in reused espresso bean bags and available with no purchase necessary, the program gives customers a simple way to reuse a common byproduct at home. And having existed for over 30 years, it helps divert millions of pounds of used grounds from landfills!
In Elmira, the response was immediate and the impact is felt widely across the small community. What began a passionate in-house effort quickly grew into a steady stream of community interest
As an avid gardener herself, coffeehouse leader Candice-Leigh knows first-hand how Grounds for Your Garden benefits plants.
Coffee grounds are a natural fit for gardeners. They add organic matter to soil, support composting, and can help improve plant growth. With a near-neutral pH and a balanced carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, they are especially helpful for nitrogen-loving plants. They can also be used as a natural way to deter pests like ants and slugs. Candice-Leigh and her team often share simple tips with customers, from mixing grounds with leaves or grass for compost to adding them directly to garden beds.
“We started putting out bags of grounds and they would disappear almost right away,” Candice-Leigh says. “Customers are using the grounds in their gardens, on farms, even for composting at home. Now we have regulars who came in just for grounds and stay for the coffee and connection.”
Beyond the practical benefits, the program has become a way to bring people together. From students collecting grounds for school projects to local farmers enriching their soil, the initiative connects everyday routines inside the coffeehouse to real impact outside of it.
For Candice-Leigh, that connection is what makes the program meaningful.
“You see how something small really can make a difference,” she says. “It brings the community in, and it shows how we can all play a part in taking care of the environment.”
Top 5 Ways to Use Grounds for Your Garden
Coffee grounds are helpful for gardens, but what if you don’t have a green thumb? Here are different ways to make use of Starbucks free Grounds for Your Garden:
- Garden booster
Add coffee grounds to soil or compost to improve soil quality and support healthy plants. - Natural deodorizer
Place dried grounds in an open container to absorb odours in fridges, shoes, garbage bins, or cars. - Gentle exfoliant
Mix grounds with a little water or natural oil to use as a hand or body scrub to help remove dead skin. - Eco‑friendly cleaner
Use as a mild abrasive to scrub pots, pans, sinks, or garden tools. - Mulch or plant care helper
Spread lightly around outdoor plants—especially acid‑loving ones like roses or hydrangeas—to help retain moisture and add organic matter.
