Coffee under your feet! In Lviv park, paths are sifted with coffee grounds

To combat ice-slick, Lviv utility service workers treated the paths in the 700th Anniversary of Lviv Park with coffee grounds. The Lviv City Council proposed an experimental approach. They say that coffee doesn't harm the environment, and there's enough material in the city and to spare.

Lviv City Council press service reported this.

The idea to use coffee grounds instead of salt or sand was suggested by the Lviv mayor's adviser, Iryna Orshak, who saw this method in other countries.

"On Facebook, a non-governmental organization in Kyiv wrote that that's how they fight ice-slicks in parks in Scandinavia and Europe. I thought: why not do it here? Lviv is considered the coffee capital of Ukraine. People from Lviv like to drink coffee. There's an enormous network of coffee shops, so the idea came up to try this method in our city," says Orshak.

She stated that the leftovers of coffee beans had abrasive properties, didn't harm greenery and animals, but on the contrary, help, so they didn't need removing. Besides, dark coffee grounds should "absorb sunlight and break up ice," says Iryna Orshak.

Another big plus: there are coffee grounds in Lviv, enough and to spare. Many Lviv coffee shops prepare hundreds to thousands of cups of coffee. For the first experimental remedy for paths, the Lviv Coffee Mining Manufacture and Aroma Kavy network donated the leftovers of coffee beans.

"We hope that it'll be a great environmental and economic solution because coffee shops provide us with this resource for free," the Lviv City Council said.

As part of the pilot project, paths in the 700th Anniversary of Lviv Park were treated with coffee grounds; about 200 meters of paths were sifted there. To do this, they used about 20 kilograms of dried coffee grounds.

If the experiment is successful, the city authorities will think about its further implementation. In particular, they offer to treat paths in parks, where coffee grounds "will look more aesthetically pleasing." They don't talk about sifting roads or intra-quarter paths near residential buildings.

"The key thing is for this experiment to have an effect. Now we'll see how the grounds will be used on the park's scale. In fact, this experiment begins from today and will continue, as long as there's appropriate weather. Based on the results of the test period and the used coffee that will be accumulated, we'll make a decision," said Lviv Deputy Mayor for Development Andrii Moskalenko.

To recap, in December, eco-activists in Kyiv offered to fight ice-slicks with coffee.

Photo: Lviv City Council