One day's worth of coffee grounds from my local coffee shop
Here in Westchester County, everything that is not recycled is trucked off to a big incinerator in Peekskill NY. While the owners of the incinerator like to call it a “waste to energy” plant, I see it as a big fire pit. Burning 200 tons of garbage 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year spewing out smoke and creating toxic ash that must be trucked to a monofill ash landfill in a neighboring state.
We’ve got to find ways to reduce the amount of waste headed for the incinerator. Especially waste that could be easily re-purposed in our community.
That brings me to coffee. You know it, you love, you can’t live without it! Perhaps you do your part to save trees by using a re-useable coffee mug instead of a paper cup. But have you given any consideration to those grounds you leave behind at your local coffee shop?
It turns out that coffee grinds have many good uses in the garden. They are a great source for nitrogen, calcium, magnesium and other trace minerals that plants need.
Toss it into your compost. My compost bin perked up and got 20 degrees warmer when I started adding coffee grinds. In composting terms, they are considered a “green” like food scraps or grass clippings. They balance out the “browns” leaves and other carbon sources. Ideally you want your compost cooking around 80-13o degrees for optimal breakdown that will kill weed seeds.
Dig it into your soil. Coffee grounds will help improve the texture of your soil. They are very weakly acidic and shouldn’t impact the pH too drastically.
Sprinkle it around around plants and water it in. Azaleas, hollies, hydrangeas and acid loving plants will certainly appreciate a stiff shot of coffee grounds. Coffee grounds can also act as a natural insect repellent.
Feed some to your worms. If you are a worm farmer like me, your red wriggler worms would love some coffee grinds in addition to their veggie scraps.
I’ve been rescuing a nice 10+ pound bucket of UCG ( used coffee grounds) every day since the Black Cow opened in Pleasantville. I haven’t run out of places to use them.
Got a coffee shop in your neck of the woods? Have a conversation with them about their UCGs. Its a win win proposition that is very green!
