ALOTMENTS across Oxford are about to get a serious caffeine boost.

Green-fingered coffee lovers have brewed up a scheme to collect waste coffee grounds from cafes around the city and pour them onto vegetable patches as free fertiliser.

The plan is the brainchild of Oxford Hub – an organisation headquartered above the Turl Street Kitchen which connects Oxford students with volunteering opportunities.

It has already filtered down to the cafe below where the idea was an instant hit.

Rachel Marshall, 22, who is spearheading the project, said: "It was actually a colleague of mine Sarah Feldman, who has now left the Oxford Hub, who came up with it.

"The aim is to tackle a big environmental issue but in a small, tangible way, using student power.

"There is a lot of waste that comes from making a simple cup of coffee and there are a lot of cafes in Oxford."

The scheme, dubbed The Coffee Run, will work like this: once cafes are signed up, student volunteers will be recruited to cycle between them on a regular basis, picking up the waste coffee grounds and loading them into trailers on the back of their bikes, sort-of in the style of food delivery business Deliveroo.

Miss Marshall said the Turl Street Kitchen alone throws away about 40kg of coffee grounds a week, so the potential is across the city is pretty big.

The coffee couriers will then deliver their payloads to community allotments specifically, such as the Oxgrow project at Hogacre Eco Common in South Oxford.

The hub is hoping the students who do the delivering will also be able to get a say in what the fragrant fertiliser is actually used for.

Miss Marshall, programs officer at the hub, said: "Coffee grounds actually make great fertiliser for certain things like Oyster mushrooms.

"We have had interest from four or five other community allotments locally who we might be transporting to.

"I think there is a lot of scope for students to be involved in what the coffee grounds are used for if they would like to have a say in growing mushrooms or whatever."

The hub has been joined in the scheme by Oxford Circular Collective, a recycling group who have offered to supply the bike trailers.

Coffee grounds are acidic so they are most suitable fertiliser for acid-loving plants such as blueberry and cranberry bushes or fungi like Oyster mushrooms.

The grounds can also be mixed with dead grass clippings, brown leaves, or dry straw to neutralise the acidity, and add valuable nitrogen and potassium to the soil.

Miss Marshall added: "There is so much potential we would love to work with as many community allotments as possible."

To find out more email hello@oxfordhub.org or call 01865 264156.