k-cup upcycling + garden composting

First of all, I’d like to thank Alice and Don for inviting me to help contribute!  It’s an honor, and I look forward to posting more DIY material in the future.

*This will only work for K-cups containing coffee grounds and tea leaves.  K-cups containing powder will have nothing inside of them after you “brew” them*

Where would we be without our Keurig Brewers right now?  Honestly?  They’re so dynamic and they’ve transformed our view of the conventional coffee maker as we know it.  Pop in your favorite brew (be it coffee, tea, etc.), push a button, and you’re good to go in less than a minute!  It seems so convenient and simple.

That is, until you think about all of those K-cups making their way into our landfills!  Even the inventor of the K-cup regrets just how wasteful the idea of a single-use pod has impacted our mindset about coffee.  There are some special cups being developed for minimal waste impact, but in the mean-time what can we do to help?  Remove all of the compostable material for the compost pile!

If you’re like me and my family, you probably accrue about 15-20 cups per week – we keep a small basket lined with a plastic grocery bag in the cabinets beneath our brewer.  The size is just right for this amount, as I empty the basket weekly.

So, for this project you’ll need a few things:

• Basket or container for your spent K-cups
• Sharp knife
• Container for your compost material

K-cups are exactly what you’d think they are – grounds with mini filters built into a plastic cup.  All that you need to do is slice open the foil top…

…and use your knife to scrape out the grounds into your container.  You can even cut out the mini-filters, as they degrade very easily!

And there you have it – you’re feeding your garden and reducing landfill waste! 

~david

editor's note:  David is big on "diy."  Check out his YouTube channel!