Few things are better than sitting down with a steaming hot mug of rich caffeine every morning. If this sounds like you, you may have an array of empty sustainable coffee pods in your bin waiting for collection. But how can you be sure they’ll end up at a recycling plant and not lying in a landfill? Have you thought about composting with them?
The Benefits of Composting
Compost is a collection of grass clippings, dead leaves, old food, and other organic materials you mix and leave to break down. When they finish decomposing, you can scatter the resulting fertilizer over your grass, add it to potting soil for potplants and mix it with the earth in your gardens to encourage plant growth. Creating a compost pile of your own has the following benefits:
- It reduces waste by upcycling organic matter into a sustainable end product. Eggshells, grass clippings and coffee grounds are often key ingredients for good compost.
- It combats climate change by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases entering the Earth’s atmosphere from landfills.
- It improves soil health by improving its biological and chemical composition and encouraging earthworm, grub, and beetle populations. Essentially, it helps the dirt breathe.
- It encourages plant growth by reducing the chance and impact of plant diseases.
- It prevents soil erosion by encouraging soil binding and increasing water infiltration.
In short, composting at home is more than just reusing your old coffee pods. It’s an incredible way to contribute to environmental change in a small but meaningful way.
How to Use Your Coffee in Composting
Carbon and nitrogen are vital components of good compost. Nitrogen is a crucial part of the proteins, enzymes and acids required for cellular growth in compost, and coffee grounds include nitrogen. Carbon production is often easier for many compost ingredients, so coffee grounds provide a much-needed balance.
Removing the coffee grounds from the plastic pods is most common when composting. The recyclable plastic shells and aluminum rings manufacturers incorporate in them take much longer to break down than soft organic materials. Using these in your regular compost would mean leaving the mixture to biodegrade for exceptionally long periods.
New coffee pod products made from plant-based materials are the most viable whole-pod compostable option. However, even these only compost well quickly in specific conditions, like high-quality compost soil. It’s likely better to remove the coffee grounds first when you make compost. There are other ways to reuse or recycle used coffee pod containers that are likely far more sustainable.
Ways to Reuse or Recycle Your Coffee Pods
After removing the coffee grounds for your compost and cleaning the containers, there are fun ways to use them:
- Reuse for coffee: If you compost the old grounds, wash and dry the used pods, refill them with fresh coffee, and seal them up with aluminum foil, you’ll save on new pods or have backups if you ever run out.
- Freezer fun: Make colorful flavored ice blocks, popsicle treats or gelatin bombs as novel party ideas.
- Seed starting pots: Coffee pods are great for making seed pots to plant new seedlings or transplant from elsewhere.
- Jewelry: If you’re a fan of home crafts, you can use your coffee pod containers to make attractive bracelets, earrings and necklaces. You can also get more creative by making hair accessories, brooches or cufflinks to sell at the craft fair.
- Lampshades: You can spruce up any area in your home by carefully arranging your used pods around a circular lampshade and gluing them in place. Keep them all in one shade or paint them different colors before doing so.
- Decorations: Paint your old pods brightly and add string lights or tinsel.
- Original toys: Suggest exciting ideas to your kids, like building with them or using them as pins for a game of Skittles.
Alternatively, you can recycle them by separating the different materials before doing so. Then, put them in the recycle bin for curb collection or drop them off at a nearby recycling plant. That way, you’ll know they’re not ending up in a landfill.
Some companies also offer sustainable options for disposing of their pods. Compostable cups complement your efforts, but ensure they have a certification from the Biodegradable Products Institute before simply trusting their claim. Items must have the following qualities to get the approval:
- Compatibility with composting facilities
- A specific biodegradable and decomposition rating
- Proof they contain no harmful ingredients, as well as documentation of testing
Coffee and Compost: An Ideal Combination
You now have some ideas for promoting sustainability through home composting and using your leftover coffee pods. If you make compost at home, add the grounds and use your pod containers elsewhere. Collect all your other available organic matter to add to the mix, and happy composting!
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