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Knockout bin contaminants

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Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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  • July 24, 2016 at 3:32 pm #1701
    Shaun Mace
    Participant

    Hi all,

    I’m just wondering if anyone has had much problems with people contaminating the spent coffee grinds in shop and if so, if they have had much luck finding solutions to the problem?

    The main thing that concerns me is raw coffee getting mixed in with the spent coffee. I work at a speciality roaster/cafe and unfortunately due to high standards we end up with a fare amount of unused coffee being thrown away. Firstly when ‘tuning in’ the grinders and secondly and most importantly if there is a dodgy tamp or a potato bean. The later of the two worries me the most as this generally happens when you are busy(we get insanely busy) and you naturally knock them straight out and don’t/won’t think as you’re in a rush to get the drinks out. I feel there will always be someone who does this due to habit or not thinking or not caring. we clear 10kg a day but if contaminated I fear having to throw all or a good percentage of it away just because of a few bad beans..

    Any ideas, comments or thoughts greatly appreciated,

    Shaun

    July 25, 2016 at 5:26 pm #1737
    Adam
    Keymaster

    Hi Shaun,

    it’s defintinely good to think through what goes into the coffee you’re using and the unpasteurised fresh grounds could in theory present a route to introducing contamination. Having said that, we pick up from a number of different cafes in Exeter who all have various different processes, and some of which are quite particular about the quality of the coffee they serve, so may well be doing something similar in adding some unpastuerised grounds to the buckets we pick up. We also mix all the coffee from different sources together, and 99% of the time we have not faced any problems with it. The only time we have had problems in the past is when the coffee has been more than 24 hours old and in the higher temperatures of summer, when green mould can grow fast.

    Not a conclusive answer I know, but hopefully enough to encourage you to give things a try with a fair hope for success 🙂

    October 1, 2016 at 1:59 am #1884
    Patrice Hardy
    Participant

    Hi there, I finally have some access to coffee grounds (as I live rurally).  The only problem is that they also has some of the coffee material waste i.e. milk tops, wrappers etc.  Do I have to re pasterise the coffee??? or  can you offer any other solutions…

    Thanks

    October 3, 2016 at 4:43 pm #1887
    Eric Jong
    Keymaster

    Hi Patrice,

    that’s really annoying but byb no means the end of the world. We’ve fished out loads of wrappers, bottle tops, knives, cups and other parafernalia and still had success! It is not ideal but I’d still igive it a try without much delay.

    Do let me know how you get on,

    Best wishes,

    Eric

     

    October 4, 2016 at 5:20 pm #1893
    Shaun Mace
    Participant

    Hey,

    I thought about this quite a lot, of how to prevent the bad trash from mixing with the coffee grinds. In some of our cafes we have bins next to the knockout bins but rubbish always ends up with the grinds in a busy cafe. It’s so hard to stop yourself from chucking stuff in there, to brake that habit!

    Although it may not be too bad fishing out the contaminants, it’s not that pleasant pulling out dirty dishcloths and baby wipes and it adds risk, so…

    A couple ways to prevent or reduce contaminants;

    Modify knockout bins so entrance hole is so small it’s annoying to put rubbish in or supply them with ‘knockout tube’ and have rubbish bin adjacent with large opening(people are lazy and will mostly put rubbish in easy target:).

    Incentivise them by offering to take there waste and turn it into food, if you plan to grow a lot then maybe you could eventually exchange mushrooms for coffee or give them discounts on mushrooms…

    I hope these can help you 🙂

    Shaun

     

    October 6, 2016 at 11:16 am #1895
    Eric Jong
    Keymaster

    Hi Shaun,

    good thinking about incenticing the cafes! I thought I’d add that it also helps to tell the staff that you can’t use it if it is full of rubbish. Most of them  like seeing their waste being put to good use and reminding them of this might well see a change in how they deal with it.

    Eric

     

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