In a business first for the Hunter, GPT Charlestown Square will be home to a mushroom farm that brings environmental benefits to our coffee loving region.

 

Beancycled is the brainchild of Hunter-based sister and brother Leisha Mongan and Steven Parkinson. The mushroom business takes its name from the used coffee bean grounds that will form the bed for the mushroom spawn to grow in.

 

A special lab room for mixing and production as well as a fruiting room has been set up at Charlestown Square to create the strict conditions for mushroom growing. Coffee grounds from 17 of the centre’s coffee making establishments will be re-used to grow a variety of oyster mushrooms.

 

Mr Parkinson said the coffee brewing process pasteurises the coffee grounds, a process that is vital to remove contaminants from the material in which the mushrooms grow.

“Traditional mushroom growing uses a lot of energy to sterilise material which this process avoids so there is another environmental benefit,” Mr Parkinson said.

“Yes, the mushrooms are free of caffeine and no, they don’t taste Like coffee,” he said.

 

Ms Mongan said there is a triple bottom environmental benefit from the business because at the end of the mushroom growing process, the used coffee grounds will be made available to schools and community gardens as rich compost for vegetable gardens.

 

She said she approached GPT Charlestown Square because of its large number of cafes and its environmental awareness. Charlestown Square operations manager Andrew Hungerford said the farm was a fantastic idea that helps the shopping centre reduce its environmental footprint and removes the cost of disposing of the cafe’s coffee grounds.