What to do with coffee pulp? It just so happens…

A new study finds that coffee pulp, a waste product of coffee production, can be used to boost tropical forest recovery on used up agricultural land. The findings are published in the British Ecological Society journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence. 

After only two years the coffee pulp treated area had 80% canopy cover compared to 20% in the control area. The canopy in the coffee pulp area was also four times taller than that of the control area. Nutrients including carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous were significantly elevated in the ground treated with coffee pulp, compared to the control. This is a promising finding, given that former tropical agricultural land is often highly degraded and poor soil quality can delay forest succession for decades. 

Gardeners commonly use coffee grounds to feed their soil on a small scale.