Why Aren't Coffee Grounds Included as Food Waste?

In large volumes, coffee grounds can disrupt the anaerobic digestion (AD) process used to recycle food waste. It is environmentally more efficient to segregate and process them into bio-products to achieve more value.

Why Should I Segregate Coffee Grounds?

Recycling sits higher in the Waste Hierarchy than disposal. Rather than being recovered for energy, the used grounds can be recycled into brand-new products, supporting a more circular approach to resource use.

No. Biobags are considered contamination and will reduce the quality of the recycled material. We ask customers to please either provide the coffee grounds loose or in clear plastic sacks. We offer specific coffee grounds sacks for purchase.

Can I Leave Coffee Filters in My Coffee Grounds Recycling?

No. Coffee filters are deemed a contaminant and must be placed in general waste.

Can You Put Coffee Grounds Down the Drain?

No. Coffee grounds don’t dissolve in water and tend to clump together, which can compact with grease or soap and form sludge that blocks pipes over time. Even small amounts can settle in bends and traps under your sink, causing slow drainage or full blockages.

How Can I Store My Coffee Grounds Until Collection?

Store used grounds in our countertop caddies, then empty them into a coffee grounds sack or wheeled bin ready for collection.

How Do I Know If I Produce Enough Coffee Grounds for Collection?

We can collect grounds on an ad hoc basis. Simply store them in your caddy or bin until full, then contact our Helpdesk to book your collection.

Coffee Grounds

What Can Go in Your Coffee Grounds Recycling? 1
How are Coffee Grounds Collected? 2
How Does Collection Work? 3
What Happens After Your Coffee Grounds Are Collected? 4

How Does This Support Sustainability Goals? 5
FAQs 6
Coffee Grounds Recycling Insights 7

Recorra’s Coffee Grounds Recycling helps make the most of used coffee grounds, reduce waste, and recover a valuable resource. We collect coffee grounds and divert them away from landfill or food waste collections. Working with our service partners, these grounds are transformed into products such as animal feed, biofuel, coffee liqueur, and soil improver.

What Can Go in Your Coffee Grounds Recycling?

Yes Please

Coffee grounds
Coffee beans
Clear plastic sacks
Recorra-branded sacks

No Thanks

Food
Coffee Cups
Coffee capsules
Tea bags
Unused coffee grounds
Non-clear plastic sacks
Biodegradable sacks
Liquids

How are Coffee Grounds Collected?

7l Vented Caddy

Capacity: 7L

Size: 0.21 (H) 0.25 (W) 0.20 (D)

Best for: Small to medium-sized businesses

23l Caddy

Capacity: 23l

Size: 0.35 (H) 0.34 (W) 0.29 (D)

Best for: Small to medium-sized businesses

Your workplace may benefit from using internal caddies to collect coffee grounds in kitchens or tea station areas. These small containers act as a handy collection point before your coffee grounds are emptied or collected through kerbside sack or wheeled bin services.

Please note: caddies are not suitable for direct collection and must always be emptied into kerbside sacks or wheeled bins.

How Does Collection Work?

Contact our Helpdesk to order rolls of colour-coded sacks. Our team can help you decide how many sacks you should order at one time.

Agree upon a collection schedule with our Helpdesk to suit your needs.

Once your sacks have been delivered to your business, inform your staff of the location and proper use of your new sacks. You can download and print signage from the ‘Resources’ section of the MyRecorra portal to help your staff sort recycling properly.

Recorra’s Operatives will arrive and collect your recycling on your agreed-upon schedule, from the kerbside outside your business.

Your coffee grounds will be sorted at our Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) and transported to our reprocessing partners, EnVar in Cambridgeshire or Murray & Yeatman in Sussex.

What Happens After Your Coffee Grounds Are Collected?

After collection, coffee grounds are aggregated at Recorra’s MRF before being distributed to our partners for processing.

Coffee grounds are a nutrient-dense, high-calorie material that can be reused for numerous purposes. Recorra works with innovative partners across industries to keep coffee grounds in use and ensure they are never wasted.

EnVar

EnVar is a leading waste processor specialising in composting, green waste, food waste, and coffee grounds.

Here, coffee grounds are transformed into soil-enhancing pellets and eco-fuels.

Realizzato

Recorra partners with Brighton-based distillers Murray & Yeatman to recycle used coffee grounds into Realizzato coffee liqueur. Realizzato is made from Recorra customers’ collected coffee grounds in a world-first process.

You can create a closed loop by choosing to recycle coffee grounds with Recorra and subsequently purchasing Realizzato coffee liqueur.

Flybox

Recorra also provides spent coffee grounds to Flybox. This company feeds the grounds to black soldier flies, which become a protein-rich animal feed. This helps reduce farmer reliance on soy-based feeds that are often linked to deforestation.

How Does This Support Sustainability Goals?

With Recorra, your recycling enters a circular system where materials are collected, sorted, and turned back into valuable resources. Instead of following a ‘take-make-dispose’ model, your recycling becomes part of a process that keeps materials in use for as long as possible. This reduces the demand for new raw materials, cuts carbon emissions, and protects natural environments.

Did You Know?

Every year the UK produces up to 500,000 tonnes of coffee ground waste.
Recycling coffee grounds saves 80% carbon emissions compared to sending them to landfill.
Used coffee grounds can replace virgin or synthetic, often petroleum-based, ingredients in plastics and other materials.
Biofuels are carbon neutral and their use displaces fossil fuels. This further reduces your carbon output.
Coffee grounds are a common culprit for contaminating Mixed Recycling, which can mean your recycling ends up being disposed of as General Waste. Providing a separate collection of coffee grounds can help you reduce contamination and recycle more of your waste.

FAQs

In large volumes, coffee grounds can disrupt the anaerobic digestion (AD) process used to recycle food waste. It is environmentally more efficient to segregate and process them into bio-products to achieve more value.
Recycling sits higher in the Waste Hierarchy than disposal. Rather than being recovered for energy, the used grounds can be recycled into brand-new products, supporting a more circular approach to resource use.
No. Biobags are considered contamination and will reduce the quality of the recycled material. We ask customers to please either provide the coffee grounds loose or in clear plastic sacks. We offer specific coffee grounds sacks for purchase.
No. Coffee filters are deemed a contaminant and must be placed in general waste.
No. Coffee grounds don’t dissolve in water and tend to clump together, which can compact with grease or soap and form sludge that blocks pipes over time. Even small amounts can settle in bends and traps under your sink, causing slow drainage or full blockages.
Store used grounds in our countertop caddies, then empty them into a coffee grounds sack or wheeled bin ready for collection.
We can collect grounds on an ad hoc basis. Simply store them in your caddy or bin until full, then contact our Helpdesk to book your collection.

Start Your Coffee Grounds Journey Today

Want to dispose of your coffee grounds the right way? Get an instant quote today or contact our team for a bespoke service plan that fits your business needs.

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Coffee Grounds Recycling Insights

Revolutionising Coffee Grounds Recycling with Realizzato Coffee Liqueur

Realizzato Coffee Grounds Recycling

Realizzato Coffee Liqueur

Envar Coffee Grounds Recycling

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