Trouble brewing over coffee grind fertilizer

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Jim Lester of Lester's Farm Chalet in St. John's, Nfld., has been using coffee grounds as a substitute for commercial fertilizer since 2009 without encountering any problems. But now a disgruntled neighbour says the stink created by the junked java is simply unbearable.    

Two CBC News stories, posted on Oct. 20 and Oct. 22, tell both sides of the story. One presents an innovative farmer who, by adding coffee grounds and other organic waste collected from local businesses to his compost, is less reliant on chemical fertilizers and diverts an estimated 2,000 tons of material from local landfills every year. The other shows a fed-up local resident, Leonard Collins, who says he can't open his windows or sit on his patio for the stink and blowing coffee grounds.

Lester told the CBC that "we are in an agricultural zone, and certain agricultural activities do create, for want of a better word, a smell, but it's accepted agricultural activity. It's not harmful to your health; it's purely a cosmetic issue."

Collins says the coffee ground pile is the size of a football field and is directly across from his property. "It's got to have some kind of concrete barrier, or it has to be moved," he told the CBC. "I don't understand why it got to be dumped on a main road. This is a main road, in front of someone's house. It doesn't make sense to me."

Maybe the two of them can discuss it over a cup of coffee? BF