How to Recycle Coffee Grounds

Recycle the funds of the coffee It's a practice we should all learn to practice. It's one of the most beloved and consumed beverages in the world, yet after drinking it, we throw away what's left in the coffee maker filter. This is a bad thing, because coffee grounds are a hidden treasure that can be reused in countless ways. Below, we provide some useful and creative ideas, along with a series of suggestions for eco-friendly solutions for the home, garden, and even personal care. Let's see. what can you do with coffee grounds.

Index of topics

Scrub

Photo Credit | RawPixel

Coffee grounds are a great natural exfoliant For the skin: simply apply them to the body with circular motions, massage, and rinse. You can use them as a scrub for both the face and body by mixing them with extra virgin olive oil (or another vegetable oil): you will obtain soft and nourished skin. The same mixture used for the scrub, with the addition of a spoonful of ventilated green clay, is excellent for massages and compresses against cellulite.

Cake

Photo Credit | Douglas Lopez on Unsplash

Coffee grounds can be used in cooking to make various desserts. One example is the Barozzi cake, a typical dessert from Vignola, Emilia-Romagna. Made with dark chocolate, chopped almonds and coffee, it is extremely delicious and there is no occasion in which it cannot be brought to the table.

Hair dye

Photo Credit | Anthony Wade on Unsplash

You can also use coffee as dye to cover gray hairOf course, this isn't a miracle method, but it can help camouflage them between touch-ups.

Prepare a cup of coffee and mix it with 2 tablespoons of grounds and some conditioner
Apply the mixture to the roots and leave it on for half an hour
Rinse and repeat if necessary.

Fertilizer

Photo Credit | Bublikhaus via Freepik

Coffee grounds are one of the most useful and powerful fertilizers natural thanks to the nitrogen, calcium, potassium and magnesium content that they release into the soil. They enrich the compost or, dried and mixed with vegetable seeds, they improve the growth of these plants from the very beginning.

Face mask

Photo Credit | Freepik

A 2007 study showed that caffeine, as a stimulant, increases blood circulation to the hair follicles. This can help hair grow. grow faster and become stronger, fuller, and thicker to the eye. Use coffee grounds mixed with olive oil to make a mask, leave on for 30 minutes before rinsing.

Cleaning the pots and pans

Photo Credit | Freepik

You can use coffee grounds to clean the pots, especially for removing caked-on grease from grills and stovetops. Simply rub them gently on the hardest-to-clean surfaces.

Bad smells

Photo Credit | nrd via Unsplash

Recycling coffee grounds is also useful for fighting bad smells, both in the refrigerator and in the pantry. Simply place the leftover coffee grounds in a bowl or saucer and let them sit. No more than three days. In the car, however, the coffee grounds should be placed in a net, a nylon stocking, or an old pair of pantyhose, and are also useful in case of ashtray and trash can: put a layer of powder on the bottom of these objects.

Hand deodorant

Photo Credit | Daiga Ellaby via Unsplash

Coffee is also a good hand deodorantUse it to eliminate onion and garlic odors. Simply mix the coffee grounds with some Marseille soap powder and rub it well on your hands.

Dye

Photo Credit | Michael Walter via Unsplash

Coffee grounds can still be used as dye natural way to age decoupage work or lightly dye some old white garments: just add a little water to the grounds and rub them over the affected surfaces or pour them into the soaking water.

Furniture scratches

Photo Credit | Clay Banks via Unsplash

If you have furniture with small scratches, with the help of a cotton swab You can rub it with soaked coffee grounds. The scratch will be less noticeable.

How to fertilize plants with coffee grounds

In a pot, in the vegetable garden, in the gardenCoffee grounds are a great resource in all these cases. In a country where we are all accustomed to drinking cups of espresso throughout the day, they are considered a precious resource. natural fertilizer Thanks to the substances they contain, they help maintain good soil moisture and prevent various diseases that commonly affect plants, especially those of fungal origin. However, you need to know how to proceed to achieve the best results.

Photo Credit | Tim Douglas via Pexels

We see how to use coffee grounds for the care of the garden and vegetable garden:

First of all, as already mentioned, use the coffee grounds as natural fertilizer: just sprinkle them directly into the pot or soil. Coffee grounds also contain nitrogen, a substance that promotes the growth of plants and fruit trees such as melo or the cherry tree, and their flowering.
Coffee grounds are able to keep worms, snails, ants and slugs away from the garden. It will be enough to create, with the funds, a circle around the plant and you will see that they will not come close.
If instead you place two cups of coffee grounds in a bucket of water and leave it to infuse, you will have obtained a liquid fertilizer, an excellent nourishment for the leaves.
Finally, another use is to add coffee grounds to the waste material collected in the home composter: you can find here all the instructions for building a composter from the balcony and here instructions for making a garden composter.

Which plants can be fertilized?

In general, coffee is an ideal natural fertilizer for plants that use a acid or subacid soil. They are particularly perfect for azaleas, camellias, lilies, mimosas, hydrangeas, and magnolias. Among the trees: fir, maple, and birch. As for aromatic herbs: basil, pepper, parsley, and garlic. Berries: blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. Vegetables: eggplant, cucumber, pumpkin, and zucchiniAnd finally potatoes (classic and sweet), rhubarb and turnips.

Which plants cannot be fertilized?

Which plants don't like coffee grounds, on the other hand? Among those that don't like it are: tomatoes, broccoli, sunflowers and radishes. A study by the University of Melbourne has shown that coffee grounds have a negative effect on these types of plants. Let us remember, in fact, that they tend to raise the pH of the soil, and therefore should be discarded both for already acidic soils and for plants that do not like soils with these characteristics.

Sources: Effect of caffeine and testosterone on the proliferation of human hair follicles in vitro

How to recycle coffee grounds