At Stewarts we love to try and recycle, upcycle and even unicycle (I genuinely once got on the shoulders of a guy whilst he was on a unicycle, scariest thing I’ve ever done!).
That’s why are always reusing coffee grounds for other things.
We get asked a lot what we do with all the coffee grounds that we end up with so I’ve put together a list of things that we do with ours and a couple of the best things that we don’t.
1. Fertiliser & Compost
This is our number one because not only do we use our left over coffee grounds to fertilise our tomato plants that we have growing at our roastery (fist fruit has just started to come out so it won’t be long before it will be tomatoes all round!). We also use compostable cups and lids when we go on the road and where possible we take them back with us and have started breaking that all down into next years compost!
Our plan is to go even bigger and better with our little garden next year as we continue the clean up project we have. We are hoping for lots of plants, flowers, fruits, vegetables and more!
2. Insect Repellent
This is a natural way to keep those plants from from insects! It’s as simple as spreading around some of the coffee grounds on the stuff you want kept safe and then creating a little border with the grounds. Given that the grounds will then decompose and fertilise the plants too then it’s a win win!
3. Bin Deodoriser
Sprinkle some coffee grounds into the bottom of your bin…done! No one wants to admit that they are rubbish – excuse the pun – at taking out the bin but everyone hates it and everyone puts it off.
Some people don’t let it get to the point where you end up with weird brown water and a smell that creates a 2m radius around it but those of you that do, fear no more! Just make yourself a lovely big pot of coffee, enjoy it and when the buzz hits it is time to get off your backside, get that bin emptied and washed out.
Now you’ve done that – get the coffee grounds in the bin and relax as the smelly bin becomes a thing of the past.
4. Drain Cleaner
This was one of the best things that I learned. Where I live currently the drainage system is particularly bad and it was getting me down quite a bit. So hearing that coffee grounds could help solve the problem I was very happy.
Rather than taking coffee grounds from the roaster I thought I would be nice to my sink and make a fresh batch of coffee in the french press. The whole process worked a treat, I enjoyed several cups of coffee and my sink is now always clean and clear.
5. Face & Body Scrub
This is the one I haven’t tried. We have had discussions with people all over the world about roasting, grinding, brewing and then shipping the grounds because of the beauty benefits.
Now I’d like to think I am beautiful enough without it (in truth it’s more fear of coffee grounds forever being in my beard) so as I said, I haven’t tried it but go on YouTube and see the thousands of how to videos and you know that there is something in this.
The grounds act as an exfoliant and personally any health and beauty tips that come from me drinking more coffee – I am a big fan of.
Thats my ultimate guide to coffee ground reusing, what are you doing with yours?
We accidentally discovered black coffee is excellent for cleaning a leather settee! Having spilled some and then drying it off, the leather has a lovely shine! Maybe only best on brown leather though?
Yeah maybe we should not advise that for people with nice cream leather sofas haha!