By Marie-Antoinette Issa.
If you think your morning latte is solely catering to curb your caffeine cravings, think again. Every year, more than two billion coffee pucks - the spent grounds left behind after that perfect brew - also end up in landfill in Australia, releasing methane and contributing to the planet’s waste problem.
Breaking up with your barista is not a feasible option, so Single O isn’t just brewing coffee; it is brewing a solution. Partnering with sustainability innovator Reground, they’ve launched New South Wales’ first coffee waste diversion program, turning yesterday’s grounds into tomorrow’s resource and proving that every puck can make a difference.
To celebrate the launch, a sit-down lunch with a no-waste menu was hosted at Three Blue Ducks Rosebery, featuring a panel discussion with Single O CEO Mike Brabant, Reground founder Ninna Larsen, Deputy Lord Mayor Jess Miller and Three Blue Ducks co-founder Andy Allen.
While the multi-course meal was a tasty showcase of sustainability in action, the real story of the afternoon was the partnership itself - a blend of innovation, practicality and commitment that could reshape coffee culture in Australia.
The initiative, dubbed Giving a Puck, tackles one of the industry’s most overlooked waste streams.
"Spent grounds are the coffee industry’s hidden waste problem. We think about takeaway cup waste, but we tend not to think about the spent coffee puck from our morning latte that goes to landfill,” says Mike. "We’re riled up to finally be fixing it and excited to help lead the change towards a circular coffee future.”
The concept is simple but game-changing, with Lord Mayor Jess Miller jokingly chiding a room of hospitality experts that, after construction in the City of Sydney, "accommodation and hospitality is the second-largest source of CO2 emissions and that’s predominantly from waste and energy.
"You’re the second worst. You’re not the worst, you’re just the second worst,” she laughs.
Fortunately, through Giving a Puck, cafes and restaurants across NSW can now join an easy-to-access collection service, diverting coffee grounds from landfill and giving them a second life as compost, worm farms, mushroom cultivation, or even sustainable building materials. Leading Sydney cafes have already signed on, including Happyfield, Soulmate Coffee, Superfreak, Bills and Three Blue Ducks.
In the first five years, Single O and Reground estimate the program will divert three million kilograms of coffee from landfill - equivalent to 85 million cups of coffee - preventing hundreds of thousands of kilograms of carbon emissions.
"This isn’t just a by-product - it’s a valuable resource,” Mike continues. "Responsible disposal is an essential, yet often overlooked, part of the craft of making great coffee. Giving a Puck flips that script - making what happens after the shot central to good coffee and leading the industry charge to upcycle grounds, close the loop and create real impact.”
Reground founder Ninna echoes the sentiment. "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. When left to decompose in landfill, coffee grounds release harmful greenhouse gases, yet they hold enormous potential as a resource. By expanding this initiative to NSW, we’re not just reducing waste - we’re empowering businesses to take meaningful action and rethink the entire lifecycle of coffee.”
The partnership has already seen success in Victoria, where the program repurposed more than 40,000 kilograms of coffee waste from Melbourne cafés, cutting 88,000 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions. The NSW rollout builds on that momentum, bringing circular coffee to Sydney and creating a model the partners hope to scale nationally.
Also weighing in is Chef and Three Blue Ducks co-owner Andy.
"It was an interesting story personally, walking into the Ducks’ kitchen,” he says. "I grew up in Maitland and food wasn’t a massive part of my upbringing. Back then, we had one bin when I was growing up. We didn’t have two in Maitland…but I feel like, as Chefs, whether it’s out of necessity to have a better business or because you care about the environment, we’re doing a better job than we were, a lot better job. So, the timing of launching in Sydney, after an initial Melbourne debut is great,” he adds.
Describing his garden at home as resembling "a bloody coffee mine site,” Andy admitts that it was that nacldrop which actually first got him about coffee waste.
"Then I started to put it in the green bin. I’m just one dude - my wife and I - and yet, you see 12 pucks a week go into our bin. Imagine that across all the cafes…
"At the Ducks, we sell a ton of coffee…we’ve tried to do our best. We made coffee soap, sold ten bars. We made a coffee for Butcher once, which was tasty, but no one wanted to buy it,” he jokes. "So, it’s nice to have a much easier option nowadays.”
Ultimately, the partnership is a reminder that sustainability doesn’t have to be bitter. By thinking beyond the cup and considering every puck, the hospitality industry can serve up a cleaner, greener future.
With more than 75,000 tonnes of coffee grounds sent to landfill each year, initiatives like Giving a Puck are more than a drop in the ocean - they’re a shot of hope. As Mike puts it: "Expanding this initiative to NSW means getting grounds out of landfill, reducing greenhouse gases and protecting the beautiful natural environment that our hospitality venues operate in - something we believe the NSW hospitality industry will get behind.”
So, next time you sip your flat white or pour-over, remember: in NSW, your coffee could do more than wake you up - it could help wake the industry to a cleaner, smarter and more sustainable future.
