In 2018 in the Basque Country alone, 7,485 tons of coffee grounds ended up in landfills. Only 0.2% of the coffee produced is consumed, the remaining 99.8% is thrown away. The human being has created a consumerist machine that devours resources without thinking about the consequences, being coffee the organic waste number one of this circle. Linear production processes hinder the regeneration of the environment, accelerate climate change and destroy our legacy of this planet. Funghi Thinking is the Bilbao Hub's project which promotes farming of mushrooms on coffee grounds. As the Hub firmly believes that through education we can make a greater impact, it works together with local schools. The Project-based learning method is used to create an interdisciplinary circular economy project. And how does this work? The Hub proposes different challenges depending on the course and year. For example, Economy students learn about what is the circular economy and are in charge of explaining other years the concept. Primary school students collect the coffee grounds from local cafes and plant the mushrooms. Technology students measure humidity and other variables of the mushrooms and pass this data to Math students so they can analyze it using concepts such as big data… Finally, Economy students again make a Marketing Plan to sale the harvested mushrooms. The whole school, teachers, parents and even local cafes are involved and aware of the circular economy concept while they are also learning and developing skills.

The project has been executed together with the organisation "Lauaxeta Ikastola".