Did you know that you can celebrate Earth Day every day by recycling your morning coffee grounds? We adopted this zero waste strategy in our home and it impacts our lives in a very positive way. It’s easy to start a new green habit! How about starting with your morning coffee ritual?
So, don’t just throw your used coffee grounds in the garbage or down the drain! In fact, never throw coffee grounds down your sink’s drain or eventually you’ll end up with a major clog. Here are four simple, Earth-friendly ways you can green-up your morning routine before heading out to work or school.
Four Ways to Recycle Your Morning Coffee Grounds
KITCHEN COMPOST Coffee grounds, an excellent source of nitrogen, can go directly into your kitchen compost. If you will be adding used coffee grounds to your compost pile, keep in mind that they are considered green compost material and will need to be balanced with the addition of some brown compost material.
PLANT FERTILIZER Coffee grounds can help fertilize plants. House plants can benefit from the little spike in acidity provided by coffee. Coffee grounds add nitrogen to your compost but they will not immediately add nitrogen to your soil. For more details about using coffee grounds as compost or fertilizer, the folks at GardeningKnowHow.com provide lots of great tips.
DEODORIZE YOUR FRIDGE It may seem counter-intuitive, but used coffee grounds can be used to deodorize your refrigerator. It’s simple! Put your used grounds into a bowl and place the bowl in the refrigerator. The coffee grounds will absorb odors!
SCRUB POTS & PANS When your pots and pans require some extra elbow grease to get them clean, try using coffee grounds on a sponge!
If you’re wondering how we work with clients to make our espresso bar service greener, check out our Green Initiatives for events and weddings.
Do you have some other tips to add to this list for simple ways to recycle your morning’s coffee grounds? Let us know in the comments below! Imagine if everyone added one of these steps to their morning routines? Any or all of these can become habits very easily, don’t you think? Happy Earth Day!