Free used coffee grounds for the garden

Yesterday James brought home a packet of free used coffee grounds from the cafe in the building where he works. They are offering bags of used coffee grounds in biodegradable bags for free for people to use as a garden fertiliser. The cafe is run by a catering company called Baxter Storey who 'cater for a sustainable future' to quote their tagline.

From my brief look at their website this morning they seem to be true to their word with news of their head office in Reading being certified carbon neutral at the end of last year, they are registered with the Fairtrade Foundation as traders of Fairtrade products and take environmental concerns into consideration in many other areas (for example with use of packaging, biodegradable cups/plates, replacing plastic cutlery with wooden equivalents from sustainable sources, having all waste cooking oil from their kitchens converted into bio-red diesel, using bio diesel fueled refridgerated vans... the list does go on.)

One thing I really wanted to find out though was if the coffee used in their cafes is certified organic. I did find information that they work with a company called First Choice Coffee which have a commitment to social and ecological business practices, but I couldn't see that the coffee supplied to the Baxter Storey cafes is definitely certified organic (First Choice do supply organic fairtrade coffee amongst other things looking at their website, so Baxter Storey may well use it.) I have filled in their online enquiry form to ask about this and so I'll just have to wait now for a reply to know if the used coffee grounds are organically grown and can go in our compost bin.