Coffee to Compost

Lately I've become a pro at taking other people's trash home to my garden-- first bags of leaves and grass clippings, and now coffee grounds! I wonder what other nutritious trash is out there waiting for me?

Did you know that coffee grounds are great for the garden?

Sustainable Enterprises tells us that every day across America, Asia and Europe, millions of pots of coffee and tea are brewed, and the millions of pounds of wet grounds, filters and bags thrown in the trash.

Coffee by-products can be used in the garden and farm as follows:

• Sprinkle used grounds around plants before rain or watering, for a slow-release nitrogen.
• Add to compost piles to increase nitrogen balance. Coffee filters and tea bags break down rapidly during composting.
• Dilute with water for a gentle, fast-acting liquid fertilizer. Use about a half-pound can of wet grounds in a five-gallon bucket of water; let sit outdoors to achieve ambient temperature.
• Mix into soil for houseplants or new vegetable beds.
• Encircle the base of the plant with a coffee and eggshell barrier to repel pests.
• If you are into vermi-posting, feed a little bit to your worms

Even Starbucks wants us to take their coffee grounds! Their website says "coffee grounds act as a green material with a carbon-nitrogen (C-N) ratio of 20-1, making an excellent addition to your compost. Combined with browns such as leaves and straw, coffee grounds generate heat and will speed up the composting process."


The non-profit organization I once worked for, MUD, has a great Coffee-to-Compost program, where volunteers bicycle around town to local coffee shops, delis, and bakeries and collect 450 pounds of coffee grounds per month for the compost bin. This program combines recycling, community partnership, gardening, and clean transportation!

Now I just need to get out of the car and get my coffee grounds by bike, which is far more challenging in the cold Montana weather with 2 little kids (I know, excuses, excuses... but how does a comfortable, wanna-be green suburbanite get motivated to bundle up the kids and run the errands by bike?)


Related links/posts:
Lasagna Gardening
Composting 101
How to Compost.org