Sustainable til the very end: the best ways to discard of your used coffee
Not sure what to do with your used coffee? There are some fantastically sustainable practices which can keep your coffee out of landfill.
Sustainable til the very end: the best ways to discard of your used coffee
Here at KOTA, we place sustainability at the core of all the decisions we take as a business to make sure that when your order arrives to your door, you know wholeheartedly that these beans have been ethically sourced with our producers, and the environment, in mind.
But recently, this got us thinking – why haven’t we addressed how we can take sustainability one step further. That’s right, we’re talking after the cup of coffee has been brewed. So today, let’s dive in to how you can discard of your used ground coffee in a way which will have the environment thanking you.
Before anything else, you're going to need to have drunk your cup of coffee! Check out our latest single origins here for some inspiration.
Why shouldn’t coffee grounds go straight to landfill?
If you’re brewing at home, it’s probable that when you finish your coffee in the morning you swiftly chuck your filter paper filled with coffee grounds straight into the bin. Out of sight, job done. It’s one of the great benefits of using filter coffee set ups like the V60, AeroPress or origami dripper – there is very little clean up involved. But did you know that our landfill systems aren’t necessarily the best place for this coffee to end up?
Reason being is vast amounts of stagnant used coffee decomposing together produces a lot of methane. So although your dose of coffee alone may not have a big impact, when you start to think about just how many people are drinking coffee each day and discarding their coffee grounds in the same way as you, the amount of used coffee very rapidly grows. As we’re all aware, we need to be increasingly conscious of greenhouse gas production in day-to-day life to best help combat climate change, so although it’s a small step, you might read below and find a beneficial way to use your coffee grounds whilst keeping them out of larger stagnant piles in landfill.
Ways to use your used coffee grounds
As a pest deterrent
Just potted up a new flower bed which the slugs and snails are absolutely devouring? Placing a trail of used coffee grounds around its perimeter can help to keep these pesky garden friends away from your prized plants.
Digging into soil to attract worms
Attracting worms to the garden is fantastic for your soil, and coffee can help bring them to you. Simply dig small pockets of ground coffee into your lawn and the worms will get to work underground in making a home in your soil. This also helps soil aeration and drainage which is a great bonus.
Making plant fertilizer
A bit of garden maintenance can swiftly turn into your next favourite fertilizer. Simply mix your ground coffee with old grass cuttings, leaves, and dug soil to produce a diluted coffee fertilizer to put around your plants. It is very important that you take a moment to google whether your plant will be thankful for this mix, as there are some plants which don’t take well to coffee.
Deodourizing spaces
Leaving a bowl of coffee grounds in your fridge can help neutralise the smells which often appear within them. What’s great about this option is you can get multiple uses out of your coffee, as when you change your coffee out, the older batch could then go on to be used in the aforementioned gardening hacks.
Neutralising cooking odours on your hands
In a very similar way to the above, if you have the lingering scent of onions or garlic on your hands from time spent preparing food in the kitchen, gently exfoliate your hands using your ground coffee and after a quick rinse, you’ll be free from those kitchen smells.
Dyeing fabric
Some incredibly talented people elevated their latest craft projects buy dyeing their own fabrics to use for them. A look at YouTube can guide you to the method needed, but why not rebrew used coffee grounds as the base rather than using a new dose of coffee?
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