Throwing away your coffee grounds seems like such a wasteful thing. After all, it was so costly. Isn’t there something else- a way to reuse coffee grounds for something good?
The answer is yes. Although not in the way you think, you can’t make more coffee from the same used grounds. After all, brewing coffee extracts oils and other nutrients responsible for flavor, aroma, and caffeine. Making more coffee from the same settings would result in an odorless, flavorless, caffeine-less beverage.
But, there are a lot of ways to reuse coffee grounds. Let’s check them out.
Best ways to reuse coffee grounds
Deodorant
Coffee is a great way to get rid of bad smells. It absorbs most odors and neutralizes them thanks to its strong aroma, which is, thankfully, very pleasant even in already used coffee grounds.
And so, used coffee grounds can be used not only to get rid of bad smells but also to prevent them. If you have, for example, a saucepan or some cooking tool that has a particular odor you can’t seem to wash away, you can use coffee grounds. For saucepans or pots, heat them on low heat with water and the coffee grounds. For cutlery or cooking tools, let them soak with coffee grounds for an hour, then wash them with plenty of soap.
To prevent smells, you can scatter used coffee grounds at the bottom of the trash can, for example. You can also make pouches with breathable fabric and place them around places that are prone to smell- patio, kitchen, bathroom, and so on.
Important: ground coffee is toxic if ingested by toddlers, small children, or pets. Please do not leave them in places that could pose a danger to children or pets.
Cleaner
On the same note, ground coffee makes for a great household cleaner, as long as you remember to use gloves. It absorbs smells, sure, but it’s also the perfect cleaner for a lot of reasons. The first is that you don’t have to spend a dime on a “deep cleaner”- coffee already does that.
First of all, coffee has the perfect texture and consistency. Because it’s a lot of small -yet not too small- particles together, it gets every little bit of dirt out. It’s fantastic for deep cleaning, and you don’t even need to use that much of it.
Secondly, coffee has a very high pH, which means that they react with fat and oils, making them so much easier to remove and wash away.
It isn’t a substitute for soap, that’s for sure, but it’s surprisingly good for deep cleans and the like.
Exfoliator
Coffee has excellent potential to clean your face and get rid of all the gunk that sticks to your pores when regular soap just won’t. Because of its texture, coffee particles get deep in your pores and bring out a lot of dirt that would otherwise stay stuck there.
It also helps remove oil from your face and reset the natural pH of your skin.
Coffee can be a little rough on your skin. Make sure you only do this two or three times a month.
Garden all-purpose
Where coffee shines the most is in your garden, backyard, etc. Whether you only grow decorative plants and flowers or grow vegetables and fruits, coffee will prove an invaluable ally here.
These are some of the best uses for your garden or backyard:
- Pest Killer: coffee has proven to be exceptional at taking out many pests, like ants, flies, spiders, and other things that can harm your plants. Sprinkle a little where you think the insects are or on top of the ground surrounding the area where the affected plant is, and results are visible overnight.
- Fertilizer: coffee is a fantastic addition to your soil. It increases your soil’s nitrogen concentration, responsible for almost all plants’ health. A simple boost in nitrogen can make all the difference between weak or small harvests and a bountiful one. You can use coffee alone as a fertilizer or use it along with other fertilizers as a mix.
- Compost: composting coffee is an excellent idea because usually, composting is a smelly, dirty business. Coffee takes the smell down a couple of notches and is the perfect food for earthworms, so it’s a great addition to your compost bin in moderate amounts.
- Herbicide: using a little water and ground coffee is a great way to get rid of weeds and other undesirables in your garden. Mix water, used coffee grounds, and, if you want, a little bit of salt. Rub onto the leaves and stem of your target. You’ll see the results in no more than two days.
Conclusion
Indeed, you didn’t expect used coffee grounds to come in so handy! But it turns out coffee has a lot of valuable properties that go beyond simply making a delicious, healthy beverage that we love. Reusing coffee grounds isn’t just a great and natural way to fertilize, clean, or exfoliate. It’s also a great way to start being more conscious of our waste.
Maybe, just maybe, reusing coffee grounds can be what starts all of us down on a path that leads to a greener society. After all, when it comes to coffee, this is very important. We need a lot of green earth to keep growing and harvesting our precious coffee!
And already, the coffee industry does quite a bit of damage. Although there are a lot of programs put into place to make coffee greener, there’s still a lot of single-use plastics and other concerns that make coffee quite wasteful already. So it feels good to know that we’re at least doing a little something by reusing our coffee grounds. It isn’t much, but it’s honest work.
