Waste To Ka-ching Possibilities -- Gourmet Mushrooms Sprouting Out Of Java Dregs!

It's no longer so surprising when we hear about entrepreneurs converting the dregs of what's clinging to the bottom of our garbage cans into shiny, new, nifty items -- in fact, although it's become somewhat commonplace, I never get tired of hearing about the innovation.

Thoughout the group discussions posted on Greenwala, we continually see examples of waste being transformed into a desirable commodity -- just dive into the "Green Design" group or the "What Can I Turn This Into? A Recycling and Crafting Idea Center" for just a small sampling of inspirational ideas.

The most obvious trailblazer was (and continues to be) Terracycle, first with their "worm poop into fertilizer" concept, and then with the ongoing upcycling of countless snack wrappers and food containers.

Others have come up with equally brilliant ideas that may not have received the type of press that Terracycle has benefitted from, but their concepts are worthy nonetheless -- the achievements of Gavin McIntyre and Eben Bayer's Ecovative Design and Greensulate companies come to mind because they are literally growing eco-friendly fully biodegradable household insulation and packaging material out of agricultural by-product waste and fungal mycelium.

Most recently, Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez have stepped up to the plate by utilizing a ton of Bay Area coffee waste each week as the growing medium for their sustainable mushroom growing business, Back To The Roots Ventures or BTTR.

Gourmet mushrooms seem to thrive in the coffee ground soil, considering the fact that Arora and Velez grow hundreds of pounds of gourmet oyster mushrooms a week that are snapped up by seven Whole Foods Markets in the area.

While augmenting soil with coffee grounds isn't a new concept, they are using it as the sole source of nourishment for their mushrooms and then taking it one step further, not just by donating what remains to local school gardens and non-profit urban farms but also selling the rest to the community in the form of gardening compost.

Most of us in Greenwala know that there are many unique things that you can do with coffee grounds, such as dying fabric, using it as a body scrub and creating containers out of it, but would you have imagined that you could support a thriving gourmet mushroom business with it?

With the state of the economy as it is, it sure sounds tempting to knock on Starbucks' door, scoop up vast grind donations and dabble in mycology for a bit!