NSW’s First Dedicated Coffee Waste Program Is Here, Ready To Save 200,000 Kilos of Grounds From Landfill

Late last year, I set myself a rule: no single-use coffee cups. Ever. It didn’t matter if my eyeballs were hanging out or my need for caffeine was zinging behind my eyes, the planet was more important. While this no-exceptions mentality has been working for reducing my own rubbish pile, there’s always more we could be doing – a fact proven by Reground, the Melbourne-born social enterprise revolutionising our coffee waste systems.

“People are well aware of the impact of single-use coffee cups, but far fewer realise that coffee ground waste poses an equally significant environmental challenge,” Reground founder Ninna Larsen says in a statement. “When left to decompose in landfill, coffee grounds release harmful greenhouse gases, yet they hold enormous potential as a resource.”

Together with Single O, Reground is launching in NSW next week – and some of Sydney’s favourite cafes are already on board.

Each year in Australia, 75,000 tonnes of coffee-ground waste is made. And most of it hits landfill, primed to release methane. But not when Reground’s involved. Instead of going into a bin, coffee pucks will be collected by Reground – then circulated back into local ecosystems. “[This means] getting grounds out of landfill, reducing greenhouse gases, and ultimately protecting the beautiful natural environment that our hospitality venues operate in,” Single O CEO Mike Brabant says.

In the next two years, the teams expect to divert 200,000 kilos of coffee grounds from heading to landfill – and, with continued uptake, three million kilos in the first five years. Spent coffee grounds are helpful in your garden, mushroom growing, composting and worm farms, and by keeping waste management local, the resources used to transport waste are saved too.

Newtown’s Soulmate and Marrickville’s Superfreak are signed up, as are Bills all over town, Three Blue Ducks in Rosebery, Haberfield’s always-sunny Happyfield and The Bakery on Glenayr.

“Our partnership with Reground has already helped us repurpose over 40,000 kilograms of coffee waste from our Melbourne cafes over the past two years, preventing more than 88,000 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions,” Brabant says. “[We found that] 30 per cent of Single O’s emissions come from spent grounds, so tackling this has been a key focus.”

Reground launched in Victoria with Single O two years ago, and the trip north comes with the help of the NSW Environment Protection Authority’s Food Organics Diversion Grant.

Reground launches in Sydney on Wednesday October 29, 2025. For more information on the team’s work and how your local cafe can get involved, head to the website.

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