Coffee Grounds

I grew up composting just about everything we could. I didn't realize back then that we were being environmentally friendly, I just knew that it was what my parents wanted us to do, so we did it. We did quite a few other things back in the day that now are considered to be super "green". For me though, it was just a regular part of life and something that I try to incorporate into my adult life today.

For example: we hardly ever use paper towels...mostly kitchen rags that we wash with the rest of the laundry. There's always a clean, fresh supply so they aren't germy. We also use the "if its yellow let it mellow, if its brown flush it down" philosphy. We don't water our lawn either because a) Colorado is in a perpetual drought. I read a quote from an ecologist that says if your lawn can't stay green on its own, that means your environment can't sustain it, so don't water it. I truly take that to heart because b) water is expensive here!

We also compost....a lot.  We eat a lot of fruits and veggies as well as drink a lot of coffee, so composting seemed like a natural step for us. Since gardening is a bit tricky here, we don't really have a use for our compost, but I feel good that we are cutting down on the amount of trash we are sending out to the landful.

With that in mind, I saw this article on facebook earlier today and thought I would share, because as much as I like to compost, there is a lot of it at our house and finding other uses for those pesky coffee grinds seems like a good thing to do.  I especially like number 11 because I, unfortunately, inherited my dad's smelley feet. So here is a list of other ways you can reuse/repurpose your coffee grinds:

Oh, coffee! Many of us rely on you to start the day or help us push through that early afternoon slump, but what happens to those coffee grounds after we finish the pot?

When you toss coffee grounds into the trash, they break down and release methane, like any other organic matter would do. Methane is a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful than CO2. Luckily, there are lots of ways to divert all of that coffee from the landfill by using it in beauty products, cleaning supplies, and even in the garden!

For many of these tips, moist ground will do (just let them cool, so you don’t burn your skin!). If you’re planning to hang on to the grounds, though, you have to dry them out or they’ll get moldy. Dry them out by spreading a thin layer on a cookie sheet and placing them in a sunny spot to dry. When they’re all dried out, they’re ready to re-use!

Ready to start repurposing those old coffee grounds? Here are 15 tips to get you going! If you have more ideas on how to reuse coffee grounds, I’d love to keep the inspiration going in the comments.

1. Use them as fertilizer on acid-loving plants (like tomatoes and carrots)
2. Deter cats from the garden by sprinkling around beds or pots.
3. 3Mix with mashed avocado for an invigorating face mask.
4. Scrub your hands with spent coffee grounds after chopping onion or garlic to get the smell off of your skin.
5. Compost them
6. Make an anti-cellulite scrub.
7. Keep them in the fridge or freezer instead of baking soda to eliminate odors.
8. Repel ants, snails, and slugs by sprinkling coffee grounds near the point of entry.
9. Steep the grounds in water, strain out the grounds, and you’ve got all natural brown fabric dye!
10. Scour away grease on your pots and pans.
11. Stick a sachet of dried coffee grounds into a smelly pair of shoes to get rid of the stink.
12. If you have dark hair, you can massage coffee grounds into your scalp to prevent dandruff. Blondes and red-heads, this is not for you, since the grounds can color your roots slightly!
13. Vermicomposters can feed coffee grounds to the worms. Just be careful, since grounds are acidic. Too much isn’t good for those wigglers.
14. Use coffee grounds to exfoliate your skin.
15. To give paper an “aged” look for craft projects, quickly dip pages, soak grounds in water overnight, then quickly dip your pages and let them dry before crafting.

Tip: Not a coffee drinker? Don’t fret! You can still get in on the coffee grounds goodness. Many coffee shops will give you their spent grounds for free or for a nominal fee that covers the cost of packing them up for you.

Tip: Some people say that you can dry out spent coffee grounds, mix them 50/50 with fresh grounds, and make coffee with them one more time!

15 Ways to Reuse Coffee Grounds

• posted by Becky Striepe
• Aug 23, 2011 5:05 pm