The delicious cup of coffee you enjoy every morning can actually work twice as hard for you if you let it. We’re not talking about brewing another weaker cup from the grounds, but we are talking about upcycling your used grounds for other projects! Here are six creative ways you can recycle your coffee grounds into new uses!

1. Coffee grounds - the new fertilizer. Spread some used coffee grounds across the surface soil of your plants, both in the garden and in your pots inside, to add some wonderful nutrients to the soil. Coffee is composed of several essential minerals for plants, including potassium, phosphorus, calcium, iron, nitrogen, chromium and magnesium. The coffee grounds will also absorb heavy metals present in the soil and act as a natural repellent against snails, ants and slugs while simultaneously attracting beneficial worms. You can also soak your grounds overnight to let all the minerals seep into the water and then strain the grounds out and use the coffee water as foliar!
2. Compost for the most use out of your coffee! Add your coffee grounds, coffee filter and all, to your compost pile or bin to use later as rich, dependable compost for planting vegetables and other garden favourites. Composting will greatly improve the yield and health of your garden and some scientific studies have shown that adding coffee grounds to compost can further enrich the material and help the soil hold moisture and nutrients longer. Compost all fruit and vegetable materials as well as paper, bark, grass, leaves, eggshells and other green materials for a balanced compost pile. Avoid composting animal products, including dairy, oil and fat if you can and you’re concerned about the smell or rate of compost!
3. Absorb the smells in the fridge! Just like you can use a box of baking soda to keep your fridge smelling fresh, you can use coffee grounds in a jar to soak up those refrigerator smells. The nitrogen in the coffee grounds will erase that rotten smell when mixed with the natural carbon emission, making odours a thing of the past in your fridge. Toss it to the back of your fridge to absorb the odours for several weeks and then compost the old grounds when they’ve done their job!
4. Use coffee grounds to ward off pests and bugs! Like we’ve said above, snails and slugs are repelled by coffee grounds not only from the smell, but from the abrasion caused by moving across the coffee grounds on their soft underbellies. Well, mosquitoes, beetles and fruit flies don’t stand a chance against coffee either because the diterpenes and the caffeine present in coffee are entirely toxic for these bugs! Use coffee grounds in your garden and around your seating areas in your backyard to help keep them bug-free!
5. Make a coffee ground exfoliant! The perfect exfoliant is actually in your coffee maker. The coarseness of the coffee grounds are perfect for removing dead skin cells and dirt and can be used from head to toe for a full-body exfoliation! To make your own coffee exfoliant, mix your coffee grounds with a bit of water and your choice of oil, sweet almond or coconut are perfect, and scrub away! To make a lip scrub, mix the grounds with a touch of honey and gently massage it into your lips before rinsing clean!
6. Use coffee grounds as an abrasive cleaner around your house! You can exfoliate your face with coffee grounds but did you know you can also use them to exfoliate your countertops? The coffee grounds are a perfect abrasive for hard-to-clean surfaces such as pots and pans, the grill, silverware, and even the kitchen sink. Sprinkle the coffee grounds on your intended surface and scrub with a cloth or a sponge, as usual, it will cut right through food particles, and make sure to rinse away any grounds leftover. Be careful not to use coffee on any material that is prone to staining!

Being able to reuse our coffee grounds over again is like having a hidden bonus inside our favourite cup of morning joe. Don’t let all those coffee grounds go to waste, find other useful ways to reuse and recycle your coffee grounds! Let us know what you use them for!