Saturday, May 2, 2009

Coffee, the Elixir of Life, Just Got Even Better

Call it what you will -- café, java, joe, high test, cahfee (the Bostonian pronunciation), cawfee (the New Yorker pronunciation) -- to me this lovely bean creates the one and only thing that will wake me up in the morning and cradles my personality into one that others want to be around. Well, that is, once my morning cup has been ingested.

While reading through Yahoo today I came across a lovely list of stuff we can do with all of those grounds left over after we brew up the bitter goodness. It excites me to learn there are more uses than simply aging paper or putting in the compost pile.

The transcript of the article is below, or check out the original post here.

Recycling your used coffee grinds
By Huddler's Green Home Community
Posted Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:25pm PDT

Did you know that the average American consumes about 3 cups of coffee a day? That’s a lot of used coffee grinds going into the trash.

There are actually many ways you can recycle and reuse your old coffee grinds to help preserve the environment and maintain your health. And for other ways to green your caffeine, check out the wiki all about having an eco-cup o' joe or maybe even look into drinking organic coffee!

A Cup of Joe Goes a Long Way

You’d be surprised at just how many different methods have worked for people:

* Touch up furniture and other wood scratches with grounds and a Q-tip.
* Sprinkle around areas where pesky insects, slugs and snails dwell to drive them away.
* Mix with soil as a natural fertilizer for plants.
* Dye clothing or paper.
* Rub into your dog as an organic flea dip.
* Fill old nylons and hang in your closet or fridge to repel odors.
* Use to fill old pin cushions.
* Scrub away grease and grime from pots and pans.
* Throw on ashes before cleaning out the fireplace to reduce dust from spreading.
* Feed to worms to help with your garden.
* Rub on your hands to eliminate odors.
* Mix ¼ grinds with one egg white and massage onto face like a mud pack.
* If you’re not an avid coffee drinker but you live near a coffee shop or cafe, you can always ask them for the old grinds. Places like Starbucks actually give bags of used grinds away to people who use them for their home and gardens.

Recycling is just one way that we can help maintain the natural beauty of our environment, so next time you drink a cup of coffee save those coffee grinds for future use.

3 comments:

Bridgete said...

Ooh, I love the flea dip idea! I'm sure it would work for cats too...and my cat likes coffee, he wouldn't mind being rubbed with it.

disabled account said...

you had me till you told me to put egg white on my face, hahaha!

i used to use my grounds in the garden and i know plenty of people who compost theirs. you can just sprinkle them on your lawn or topsoil as a fertilizer too. it works beautifully!

Anonymous said...

Coffee grounds slowly release nitrogen for your plants so they work great in the yard as an inexpensive fertilizer.

Not sure I would rub them on an animal though. I do not know if the chemicals will absorb through the skin, but at least when ingested even small amounts of theobromine and caffeine are deadly toxic to dogs.