Innovative Ways to Recycle Your Used Coffee Grounds

The most recent stats claim that six million tonnes of used coffee grounds end up in landfills every year. As they decompose, coffee grounds release methane, the second-most abundant greenhouse gas. The only industrial-scale recycler of coffee grounds, Bio-Bean in the UK, turns coffee waste into fireplace logs and biofuel pellets. In Taiwan, outdoor and workout clothing manufacturer, Singtex, invented an eco-friendly yarn made from coffee grounds and plastic bottles.

An Environment-Friendly Fertilizer

On a smaller scale, there are quite a few ways that you can reuse and recycle your personal coffee waste. First off, coffee grounds and paper filters should go into your green bin and not into the garbage. For backyard composters, toss those grounds in along with equal amounts of grass clippings and dried leaves.

Toss Them On Plant Roots

A little goes a long way when adding coffee grounds to your indoor and outdoor plants; used grounds are acidic and work well for azaleas and hydrangeas, but keep them away from your geraniums and ferns. Indoor plants that do like coffee include jade, Christmas cactus, and African violets.

An Organic Pest Control

A variety of garden pests do not like coffee, which is a good thing! Keep slugs, snails, and ants away with a sprinkle of coffee grounds. A mixture of orange peel and coffee will prevent kitties from using your flower beds as a litter box.

Eliminate Smells

Used coffee grounds are an excellent deodorizer; try putting a bowl of spent grounds in the fridge to absorb unpleasant odours. Mixed with baking soda, coffee grounds make a natural abrasive cleaner. You can disguise scratches on wood furniture with a mixture of equal parts coffee grounds and olive oil, rub them into the wood and then wipe dry.

Let us know if you’ve found other ways to reuse your coffee waste and we’ll pass them on.