Hello, this isWild Suzhou.

Today, we willtalk about coffee pulp, which is a waste product made from producing coffeebeans, and how coffee pulp could potentially help restore rainforests.

Coffee pulp is thebyproduct of producing coffee beans. Coffee beans are the seeds of a fruitcalled the Coffee Cherry. Though the coffee cherry isn’t actually a cherry, itcertainly looks like one, as the fruit is usually bright red or yellow. To makeroasted coffee beans, coffee producers remove the flesh and skin of the“cherry” and keep the seeds inside. However, in this process, about half of theCoffee Cherry is not used and this creates a lot of waste.

However,researchers at the University of Hawaii ran an experiment using the coffee pulpto see if it would make good compost and possibly restore Costa Ricanrainforests. They used two areas of land. Both of these areas were worn outfrom agriculture and therefore abandoned by their original owners. The areaswere covered in an invasive species of grass from Africa that was used to feedcows. In the experiment, the researchers left one of the areas of landundisturbed, and in the other, they covered the ground with a 20-inch thicklayer of coffee pulp. Researchers then waited two years and saw some amazingresults.

In the area thatwas left undisturbed, only 20 percent of the area had started to regrow, andthe trees that had regrown were not that tall. However, in the area covered bycoffee pulp, 80 percent of the area had started to regrow, and the trees were,on average, 4 times taller than the trees in the first area. The soil was alsomuch more healthy and nutrient-rich, and the invasive grass from Africa hadbeen killed off.

This shows thatcoffee producers have a way to dispose of their waste, and also help damagedrainforests to regrow. Usually, tropical forests take centuries to regrow, butthis dramatic growth in only 2 years could be very promising. However, moreresearch needs to be done to make sure coffee pulp won’t pollute rivers andother bodies of water. The process is also very smelly and can attract insectslike flies that are pests to humans.

Now, how does thisprocess work? It works because the coffee pulp smothers the area underneath it,making it suffocate and die. When it dies, it decomposes and nutrients arereleased from the plant. The nutrients from the decomposed grass mixes with thecoffee pulp, creating a layer of rich, fertile soil. Then, insects will startto come, birds will come to eat the insects, who will also drop seeds into thearea. The nutrient-rich soil will then boost the growth of the seeds in thearea, helping to regrow the rainforest.