With the help of Rafael Fernando Amaya, sustainability director of the Siembre un Árbol Foundation, every week we collect around two tons of soil residues, which instead of ending up in landfills, generating CO2 emissions, are taken to a farm in San Francisco, Cundinamarca. There, with Rafael’s help, we take advantage of the properties and nutrients in the compost to grow Orellana mushrooms, Ganoderma lucidum mushrooms and make compost.
“The idea is to give added value to the waste because the problem is not generating garbage but what we do with it,” says Amaya. Of a cup of coffee you enjoy only 5 percent; the remaining 95 percent of the bean waste is converted into coffee grounds, rich in iron and protein, which, among other benefits, is used to recover soils and cultivate mushrooms for medicinal and nutritional purposes.
With Orellana mushrooms, which have more protein than chicken and are low in cholesterol, different restaurants in the city prepare a number of dishes. Ganoderma lucidum strengthens the immune system of cancer patients and minimizes tumor formation.
Likewise, the fungus cultivated on the coffee residues is also used to develop medicines to treat chronic kidney diseases and to produce fertilizer for food plantations such as radish and carrots, reforestation projects and the planting of trees and plants.
We feel a deep respect for nature and our goal for the preservation of the environment is born in the coffee plantations. With the use of the coffee waste, we want to give a respite to the Planet and dispose of its benefits for the benefit of people, fauna and the ecosystem.
This April 22nd, in the JW Marriott store, we will be planting aromatic plants in our cups with the compost that results from the coffee grounds. Just as in Juan Valdez® we take advantage of coffee waste, with the intention of reducing the rate of garbage, may Earth Day be a pretext for you to start living in harmony with the planet, in the end, we can all be responsible consumers and together help preserve the environment.