7 months after composting with Coffee grounds and Shredded paper

We are going to conduct an eight-week composting experiment. We will be using our 80-gallon Lifetime tumbling composter.

As you can see, we have 40 gallons of coffee grounds, which, even though they are brown in color, are considered our composting greens due to their nitrogen content.

Some are moist, and while others are dry, we might add a little water. Additionally, we have our carbon source, our composting browns.

You can see that we have 10, 20, 30, and 40 gallons of that material. We will be adding all 80 gallons using our layered approach: green, brown, green, brown.

Alternatively, you could use brown, green, brown, green – it doesn’t matter.

How are materials collected?

We collect coffee grounds from local cafes that were destined for the landfill. I pick up 10 buckets of these every week from just one cafe.

Over a month, that’s a thousand pounds that I’m diverting from the landfill and turning into soil, as we will observe over time.

Shredded paper cannot be recycled because it creates a confetti-like mess at recycling centers.

So, unless you’re composting it like we are doing here, it would typically need to be disposed of as garbage.

This allows us to transform material that was headed for the landfill into living soil. Another brown material we have is 10 gallons of coffee chaff, which comes off the coffee beans during roasting.

Once again, we are converting waste into living soil.

Alright, we have loaded 80 gallons of material into the composter. Let’s close it up with the lid and give it a couple of turns. We’ll return in about a week to check progress and continue tracking this until we have compost.

What’s happening after four days?

We’re back at our bin. If you recall, we added 80 gallons of material—40 gallons of coffee and 40 gallons of shredded paper—along with a bit of coffee chaff. Let’s give it a spin and see what’s happening after four days.

As you can see, steam is rising, which is a positive sign. The amount of shredded paper has decreased significantly. We’ll keep monitoring it, as it’s warm to the touch and starting to emit an earthy scent.

Progress Update After Two Weeks

Alright, it’s been exactly two weeks since we loaded our 80-gallon tumbler with 40 gallons of coffee and 40 gallons of carbon-rich shredded paper. Let’s give it a turn and then take a look inside.

After giving it a turn, let’s open it up and see the progress. We’ve had a significant breakdown, and most of the paper is no longer visible. There’s a pleasant earthy scent with a strong coffee aroma due to the large coffee input. The moisture level looks good, but much of the carbon material has been consumed. We’ll add two more buckets of shredded paper and continue monitoring.

After adding one bucket and giving it a spin to mix, we’ll add the second bucket. We’ll return in about a week to assess progress.

Checking Progress at 25 Days

We’re back after approximately 25 days since we started this bin. Just to recap, it’s been mostly coffee and shredded paper. Let’s give it a few spins, open it up, and see what’s inside.

As we open it, you can see some heat escaping, and there’s still some shredded paper visible, though not as much.

Let’s check the temperature. It’s at a healthy 130 degrees Fahrenheit, a sign that the composting process is vigorous.

Some larger coffee pieces haven’t completely broken down, but the transformation to black, crumbly compost is well underway.

The coffee aroma has diminished, replaced by the scent of earth.

I’m quite satisfied with the progress on day 25. We’ll continue monitoring over the next few days and weeks to achieve complete compost.

Final Outcome at 7 Months composting with Coffee grounds and Shredded paper

We’re back at our bin in April, around six or seven months since we started.

As you may recall, we used only coffee grounds and shredded paper to demonstrate that with just two ingredients, we can create incredible black, crumbly compost.

While the compost is slightly moist due to exposure during the winter months, it’s still fantastic.

This will be a valuable soil amendment for our garden. There’s no visible shredded paper, and it smells like earth.