I don't have any pictures of any used coffee grounds I get but they normally look like, well, used coffee grounds. I would not call that stuff UCGs myself but I'd take that for my compost any day.

Lloyd

haha, guess I was not being very clear. What I meant is how you guys carry the stuff,the used coffee ground. Is it like give them a bucket and let them fill it up for you like I did?

I let them use whatever they prefer. I've used a five gallon pail like yours (for a restaurant so it has to be clean), I've used a one gallon pail (an office) and one business likes to use the compostable plastic like bags. If people are willing to save their UCGs for me, I'll pretty well let them do it any way they like.

I don't even care a lot if there is some trash in it as I can run it through my screener to get that stuff out.

Lloyd

I have many kinds of coffee waste, the grind, time in the roaster all make a difference in taste, but not in compost.
AS for how I carry it, a dump truck full of Super sacks.

I tried to get my local coffee shop to give me their UCG regularly but it turned out to be too much of a hassle. I got a couple 5-gal buckets full at first, but then they stopped calling when my bucket was full. I tried to go in once a week but they would forget to fill the bucket.

In the end I decided they just preferred to discard them - they didn't even put them in the green can (compostables) because, as a matter of practice, they threw plastic and other non-compostables in the same trash bag with the grounds. I suspect a couple hundred lbs/week of UCG went into the regular trash from that coffee shop alone, and it was a chain so I'd guess their other shops were doing the same.

Thanks for all the replies. I think I'll try giving them buckets first and see how things turn out.

One winter we had an arrangement with a local chain coffee shop to get all their UCG and at first gave them a large clean trash can but that was too heavy when full to easily load in the pick-up. So we went to the large totes with lids and left several of them. Collected 2-3 times a week. Ended when the lack of interest on their part became too obvious and I had a huge pile of UCG by that time. I'm sure it's just easier for them to dump them in with all the rest of the garbage.

Another non-chain coffee shop in town puts all their UCG into the 5# coffee bean bags and leaves them on a shelf near their door. Anyone can pick them up and I only sometimes get them as often they are gone. If I lived in town I'd have them on my twice a day route.

Here's the 3rd and last pile of UCG we got from the first coffee shop.

{{gwi:264064}}

That's such a huge pile of ucg u got there luckygal and there's no way I can carry that by myself hehe. Wish I could get such big amount of ucg in my area but that's not possible too. Thanks for sharing though.

rickd

you and i must be going to the same starbux. they were awesome for a few weeks. i must have gotten 10 bags or UCGs over the course of a month. I had so much UCGs i even gave a couple bags away and spread some on my lawn (rest went in my compost pile).

Well, they stopped saving them for me (not enough room behind the counter). Nonetheless, i ain't biter, but i do wish i could still get a few pounds every now and again.