Curious what folks like to do with spent coffee grounds / espresso pucks / stale beans. Personally have tried to use as fertilizer with limited success, used as a substrate for growing oyster mushrooms, and in cooking (brown bread made with some stale espresso grind really helps the flavor).
Add them to my compost pile, filters included
Right into my city compost bin, along with the coffee filters.
Compost and mushroom substrate
Makes good compost.
Like most commenters, I throw them with the filters on the compost pile. But recently I had a dog in the neighborhood pulling out plants in my front garden, and shitting in it. Spreading some of the coffee grounds seemed very effective against that too. I guess the dog doesn’t like the smell. So it;'s a win-win because the plants profit from it directly too :D
Applying it directly to plants or mixed into potting soil has very mixed support. It’s decomposing cellulose, like any other plant, so it’s unlikely to be that bad in any application. Mostly it seems like well meaning coffee enthusiasts recommend it, while mixing grounds into compost appears to be widely recommended even by non-enthusiasts.
The thing I avoid like the plague is getting grounds down the drain. Over time they’ll clog drains, collect in pipes slowing flow, etc. and generally be a pain. So I’m careful to get as much out before rinsing as possible without going crazy. I also do not use it in soaps, because soap film plus coffee grounds in your drain is a perfect recipe for those clogged pipes.
I’ve been meaning to try using used grounds in a cooking rub- leaving them to dry and then mixing them in a spice rub or using them as the rub itself. I’d be interested to see if anybody’s tried used versus fresh grounds, and whether there’s a noticeable difference.
