How to Recycle Coffee Grounds: A Guide for Creative Ideas to Embrace Zero Waste

You purchased a great homemade coffee maker that will last many years, invested in some delicious bags of vegan coffee beans, and found your favorite sustainable, planet-friendly non-dairy milk to add a splash of heaven to your morning cup of coffee. You've brewed the definitive, perfect cup of coffee exactly to your liking, and now you've got a sizable portion of coffee grounds in your reusable coffee filter.

Is there anything that can be done with coffee grounds to suit a zero waste lifestyle?

Thankfully, coffee grounds are easily repurposed and have many uses and applications in your beauty routine and around your home. If you haven't yet tried reusing your coffee grounds, you're in luck, as there are several creative ways to make coffee grounds work to your advantage.

All of that said, keep reading for a creative guide to inspire your zero waste routine in the kitchen — and throughout your home.

Before you begin to identify different projects, applications around the home, and creative ideas to reuse coffee grounds in your beauty routine, it is imperative that you understand how to properly recycle them.

As the Folgers brand of coffee notes, you can recycle your coffee grounds by including them with your organic kitchen waste in your backyard compost.

Aside from recycling coffee grounds into your backyard compost, you should know that there are plenty of other creative ways to reuse your coffee grounds. Keep reading to learn how else coffee grounds can boost the health of your home and garden.

There are certain elements of coffee grounds that make it an excellent resource to help your garden thrive.

According to BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, coffee grounds can be sprinkled directly onto the soil where your plants are growing as a supplement to help them flourish.

Because coffee grounds are rich in nitrogen — thus helping your compost break down more efficiently — coffee grounds are actually a great item to recycle in your compost to one day use in your garden. While the method of sprinkling coffee grounds directly onto plants is typically fine occasionally, the coffee grounds in a compost bin method is said to be the most effective.

"Homemade compost is superb for improving soil and growing healthy plants," per BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, which also notes that "the nutrients contained in coffee grounds will be recycled back into the soil when finished compost is used as a mulch or dug into the soil."

Suppose that you have the means and appropriate space to rescue chickens from the barbaric farmed chicken industry. Those chickens will require soft, effective materials in their coop and a gentle way to live a happily ever after.

The idea behind coffee grounds in chicken coops is that it is a safer deodorizer, waste is easier to clean, and it is a softer, eco-friendly material.

"Instead of disposing of the coffee grounds, they are repurposed as bedding material for chickens," TBN Ranch explains. "The idea behind using coffee grounds as chicken bedding is that it is a sustainable and eco-friendly alternative to traditional bedding materials such as straw or pine shavings."

As the video above attests, coffee grounds are great for beauty hacks. According to a medically reviewed article in Healthline, coffee grounds have "antibacterial and antiviral properties" and are thus great to use as an exfoliant on the skin (so long as you don't have existing skin sensitivity concerns).

You can also massage coffee grounds into your hair while you are in the shower, prior to shampooing, according to Healthline. "Some research suggests that caffeine may help stimulate and accelerate hair growth. Caffeine may also benefit hair loss conditions like alopecia areata and telogen effluvium," per Healthline.