The Boston Tea Party cafe chain is supplying its used coffee grounds to a project that sees mushrooms grown by prisoners in disused cells at Dartmoor Prison.
Used grounds from the chain's 15 coffee shops in the South West of England are collected every evening and driven to Dartmoor Prison in Devon.
Prisoners and members of the Green Shoots Associates organisation, which runs the scheme, mix the coffee grounds with compost and mushroom spores. The mixture is then bagged, watered and left in one of several unused cell at the prison to grow into oyster mushrooms, which are sold to restaurants.
A spokesman for Boston Tea Party said: “The success of the project could be measured by it having picked recently won a European Sustainability award, or by the fact that several other UK prisons are looking into replicating it. But its success is best shown by the passion the inmates have for it. We serve a lot of coffees, and this means a lot of coffee waste.
We try where we can to reuse and recycle our grounds, as when coffee grounds are dumped into landfill they create methane, a greenhouse gas more harmful than carbon dioxide. So by sending our grounds to HMP Dartmoor, we’re not just helping the Green Shoots project, but reducing our waste. And, as a bonus, the fabulous oyster mushrooms the inmates have grown have been added to the menu at our Gloucester Road cafe.”
From December 1st the home grow kits are also available to buy from BTP cafes.