Another "green" way to reuse those old coffee grounds: Nestle Waters, Switzerland, says it will begin using coffee grounds from Nestle's own Nespresso and Nescafé brands to produce energy at a new agricultural biogas facility in Switzerland. Nestle Waters began constructing the agricultural biogas facility to provide renewable energy for its Henniez bottling plant and the Swiss power grid, as well as for natural fertilizer distributed to local farms. Biogas is a gaseous fuel made from the microbial breakdown or decomposition of organic materials.
Used Nespresso coffee grounds are already being composted in Switzerland, according to the company, which says the Henniez plant will process about 28,000 tons of manure per year from 27 local farms, as well as coffee grounds from Nescafé and Nespresso production and recycling sites in Switzerland. Some 3,800 tons of coffee per year will reportedly be contributed to the plant, with approximately 3,000 of them being Nexpresso grounds.
The facility will open at the end of this year, and generate enough green electricity to power more than 1,000 households each year. The electricity will be fed into the Swiss national grid, while heat will be piped to the nearby Henniez bottling plant.
Nestle says the move underlines its wider commitment to environmental sustainability, set out in its Creating Shared Value (CSV) pledges to provide climate change leadership and to preserve natural capital, including important water areas adjacent to factories.
