Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

nafex - Re: [NAFEX] coffee grounds as compost

nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: david.maxwell@dal.ca
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] coffee grounds as compost
  • Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:46:33 -0400

> 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.)
 



Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page