[NAFEX] coffee grounds as compost

david.maxwell at dal.ca david.maxwell at dal.ca
Fri Feb 20 11:46:33 EST 2009


> I do think that caffeine from our sewer system is a problem in rivers.


This is getting a little off topic, but 1) the caffeine in the river (from municipal sewage) is 
probably no more harmful than it is in our bodies, or the bodies of the critters eating it in the 
compost.  But 2) you have actually identified a most interesting aspect.  The caffeine does 
indeed go through municipal treatment systems essentially unchanged and has been used in 
a number of studies to track loads of chemicals in sewage.  The amount of caffeine in 
sewage effluent is remarkably constant per 1000 population, and it has been used as a 
surrogate measure for a number of other things which similarly appear in the sewage, most 
notably estrogens, which do have an effect on the riverine fauna.  (The estrogens come from 
all the ladies taking birth control pills.)

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