If you are still throwing away your coffee grounds, don’t. Even simply tossing them in the grass could help revitalize the environment.
Coffee Grounds are Nutrient-rich.
Coffee grounds contain nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, which benefit soil health. However, millions of tons of coffee grounds are still discarded every year, which leads to landfills that produce methane (more potent than carbon dioxide), a harmful greenhouse gas.
- Nitrogen (2%): Important for plant growth, food processing, and the creation of chlorophyll. You’ll notice plants without enough nitrogen will turn yellow and won’t be able to grow taller.
- Potassium (0.6%): Essential for sustaining plant growth and reproduction. Potassium also helps plants increase their disease resistance and increase water use efficiency. You’ll notice that potassium-deficient plants tend to wilt on dry, sunny days.
- Phosphorus (0.06%): Promotes healthy root development, allows plant cell division, and allows plants to efficiently capture and convert the sun’s energy into useful compounds. You’ll notice plants lacking in phosphorus will have dark, dull, and blue-green leaves that may turn pale.
Revitalize Your Garden with Coffee
This makes coffee a great addition to compost and to use as fertilizer. Coffee grounds also attract worms, which help aerate the soil beneath the ground!
Pest Repellent
What New Research Shows
Researchers have discovered that repurposing coffee grounds can effectively remove harmful agricultural chemicals, such as the herbicide bentazone. This herbicide is commonly used to control broadleaf weeds in agricultural settings.
By activating the carbon in spent coffee grounds, researchers showed that this former “waste” had a 70% efficiency rate in removing bentazone, reducing the toxins in the soil that travel to the plant.
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