In the art of recycling we rediscover an element with a thousand uses: i coffee grounds. There is an alternative but above all sustainable way to use them, that is to use them to create a new cultivation system, directly from home, of edible mushrooms. The idea comes from two young Italians, Antonio Di Giovanni and Vincenzo Sangiovanni, who founded the startup "Funghi Espresso", marrying the Blue Economy model where the waste from a production cycle is reused in other production cycles.
It was 2013, when Rossano Ercolini, coordinator of the Zero Waste Research Center of the municipality of Capannori and winner of the 2013 Goldman Prize, opened the case-study on the reuse of coffee grounds in agriculture, presented in the showroom "Il gusto di a sustainable coffee”. From the case study, the Center with the collaboration of Antonio Di Giovanni (at the time a member of the operational team) carried out the environmental education pilot project "From coffee to proteins", which saw the participation of about 200 students from the Ilio Institute Micheloni to the cultivation of Pleurotus mushrooms using the coffee grounds as a substrate. Shortly after, the startup was born Mushrooms Espresso.
After the debut, the Company was transferred to Scandicci, where the owner Antonio Di Giovanni manages the Circular Farm, where he cultivates various plant species with the technique of aquaponics, in which the plants obtain nourishment from the fish waste, with a system of tanks communicating with each other.
"Nothing is created, nothing is destroyed, everything is transformed". The Tuscan stratup is based on this principle, which has made the circular economy its philosophy of life, also participating in the 2015 Expo in Milan. Thanks to the support of the Japanese entrepreneur Tomohiro Sato, Funghi Espresso has also developed a kit for the home cultivation of mushrooms, with a substrate already made with coffee waste collected from premises in the Florence area.
Indeed, Funghi Espresso favors the reuse of resources by introducing the concept of “Urban Farming” (Urban Farm), a reality in which waste from the city is recovered to produce “zero kilometre” food, thus promoting a model of sustainable agriculture”.
But how does it work? The innovative substrate is made up of two scraps: the first known as "silver skin", i.e. the skin of the coffee bean that detaches during the roasting process and the second, the coffee grounds rich in minerals and nutrients. Both of these wastes do not need pasteurization as they undergo heat treatment during their production process. This allows for reduce costs and production times as well as of optimize production: vertical cultivation allows you to produce on several levels in order to increase the final yield.
In the Funghi Espresso model there is no waste but only resources. In fact, once cultivation is finished, the substrate becomes an excellent organic compound for agriculture, earthworm hummus, thus closing the coffee cycle.
From an environmental point of view, the system generates numerous benefits. Starting from the reduction of the volume of waste to be treated to the reduction of climate-altering gases up to the increase in soil fertility. But there are numerous health benefits as well. According to studies, the startup's mushrooms absorb a greater amount of anti-inflammatory and antibacterial substances, such as polyphenols and chlorogenic acid, helping to strengthen the body.
Finally, the innovative startup wants to be an example of recycling for everyone. For this reason, it organizes training aimed at all those who want to replicate their model in other territorial contexts of Italy.
