Gourmet Mushroom Empire from Coffee Grounds

Type of practice Recycle

Name of practice Gourmet Mushroom Empire from Coffee Grounds

Name of main actor Back to the Roots, USA

Type of actor(s) Company

Location United States of America

Stage of implementation End-of-life

Year of implementation 2009

What was/is being done? Gourmet mushrooms grow and flourish in recycled coffee grounds; thus, waste from one industry could be fertile ground for another. Back To The Roots began growing mushroom using coffee grounds of the company Peet's Coffee & Tea. Products from the two companies are shelved side-by-side in Northern California Whole Foods stores. The leftover mushroom substrate is used for composting: the company developed an all-natural, sustainable, soil amendment entirely from the company’s waste, and just introduced its organic MycoRootBoost fertilizer—made from mushroom mycelium—in Home Depot and Whole Foods stores. Back to the Roots has also created the Grow-Your-Own Mushroom Garden which lets anyone, across the country, grow their own gourmet mushrooms at home.

Outcomes and impacts What started as a small-scale farm supplying local restaurants and a few groceries expanded to include the mushroom kits, which now sell at 1,000 retail centers nationally. In 2011, Back to the Roots collected, diverted & reused 1 million lbs of coffee grounds from Peet's Coffee & Tea and begun collecting the waste from Hodo Soy (spent tofo / okara waste); Linden Street Brewery (spent grains & hops) and Numi Tea (spent tea leaves).