Disposing of coffee grounds

[Alpo]

I know that you are not supposed to put coffee grounds down the sink. Not only have I seen that on the internet - so I know that it's true - but I remember my mother giving me hell when she saw me doing it when I was a child.

 

I normally use a Mr Coffee, so I take the basket over to the garbage can and just dump the grounds inAND the filter - blump.

 

But my daughter, this morning, made coffee in the French press because she said that the coffee I make was not strong enough. She has just left to go back to Georgia, and I was checking to make sure they hadn't forgot anything and I find the French press with about a half a cup of coffee still in it, and all the grounds.

 

Knowing that it should not be put down the sink, I took it back in the back of the house and flushed it down the toilet.

 

Is that also bad? I think from now on, if I remember it, I will just take it outside and swirl it around a little bit and dump it on the ground. Couple of rains and you'll never know it was there.

 

But I know there are many things you should not put in the toilet. Paper towels, griefGREASE, and "flushable" wipes head the list.

 

But I'm not sure about coffee grounds.

[Eyesa Horg]

The instructions for our garbage disposer encouraged coffee grounds. Said it helped clean and deodorize. Can't see what it would hurt, even in a septic system.

Maybe a plumber Pard has some input. We mostly use K-Cups, so into the trash they go!

[Alpo]

My understanding is they settle in the bottom of the p-trap, and solidify over time.

[Eyesa Horg]

But supposedly help remove the grease buildup. Who knows! That's why we should have clear pipes so we could check.

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

Scroll to number 4:

 

https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/home--garden/things-avoid-putting-down-the-garbage-disposal/3JUT9VoDK7bXTXH916YWBL/#:~:text=Coffee grounds won't hurt,even smell good doing it.

[Dirty Dan Dawkins]

Well there’s that coffee enema fad that proponents claim cleanse human “pipes”.

Who knows…..

[Subdeacon Joe]

As a kid we dumped the grounds on the plants near the front door.  

When I was on my own grounds went either into the trash or into planters.

 

Now we have mandatory food waste recycling the grounds go into the little pail by the sink.  We have a mesh basket so no filter paper.... although I'm using up the big stack of filters we no longer use to line the bottom of the pail to make it easier to clean.

 

 

[Pat Riot]

I throw them away. I used to throw them into my wife’s garden. Supposedly they’re very good for gardens. 
 

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

8 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

Now we have mandatory food waste recycling...

Not to get off topic, but what the heck is THAT? And how would they enforce it?

[Texas Lizard]

Garbage disposer is for garbage....Coffee grounds go the trash as I was taught....Run a lemon down the garage for good small...Once a week if I can remember I fill the sink up with water and run it threw the garbage disposer...Helps to flush out the line...

 

Texas Lizard

[Subdeacon Joe]

22 minutes ago, Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 said:

Not to get off topic, but what the heck is THAT? And how would they enforce it?

 

https://abc7news.com/ca-composting-law-compost-how-to-california-new/11416032/

 

Doing food prep I have a waste bowl (actually, a 3 pound cottage cheese container) that all my trim goes into unless I'm generating a lot of onion skins, carrot peels, celery trimmings, in which case they go into a stock pot with water to make soup stock.  When I'm done with the prep the bowl gets dumped into the pail.  SWMBO bought a nice looking little pail, has a carbon filter pad in the lid so no smell from it. Dump it into the green waste bin two or three times a week, give it a rinse with the hose on the way back in.  Give it a quick wash, then it goes back on the counter.

 

A minor hassle, and huge government overreach.

 

It's basically uninforcible on the individual level, but I wouldn't put it past the State of California and the Country of Sonoma to create Departments of Garbage Inspection and Compliance with agents to randomly inspect people's trash cans.

 

I will say that it's not altogether a bad thing.  I hadn't realized how much volume the scrap from meal prep added to the trash. We have been able to go to a smaller trashcan from the trash pickup company.   

[Eyesa Horg]

50 minutes ago, Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 said:

Not to get off topic, but what the heck is THAT? And how would they enforce it?

They have that here now! Never seen a garbage cop though!

[Rye Miles #13621]

Coffee grounds go in the trash 

[Oak Ridge Regulator]

Your plants, gardens and lawn will love your Coffee grounds, we compost them all winter with our other veggies waste and work them into the gardens in spring time

[Michigan Slim]

Up north we put them in a sandy little flower garden next to the cabin. Best soil on the place. 

[Gungadin]

Great Aunt always dumped them off the porch into the garden.  Great place to get fishing worms.  Don't know what kind of plants like or dislike them.

[Bo B. Fetterman]

Sego Palms love coffee

[Subdeacon Joe]

10 minutes ago, Bo B. Fetterman said:

Sego Palms love coffee

 

Doesn't he play right field for the Mets?

[Jabez Cowboy,SASS # 50129]

Tomatoes love coffee Grounds, helps them produce more tomatoes...

I like Tomatoes, so it's a win ,Win for us all around...

Most plants like coffee grounds...

 

Jabez Cowboy

[Chili Ron]

Howdy.

Coffee grounds for tomatos????

I love it.

Thanks.

Best

CR

 

[Buckshot Bear]

Going to use it as aggregate in concrete down here. 

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

I can taste if a paper filter has been used to make my coffee. (Forty-eight years of non- smoking, I guess.)

I use a stainless steel mesh filter and the grounds get dumped in the Green Bin, which the City picks up and composts along with all the other organics that dumped into the bin.

Our municipality doesn't want food stuff going down the pipes either, so no kitchen sink garburators either.

Now, it we could just get them to replace the destroyed Green Bins the pick-up service destroys!  

[Pat Riot]

5 hours ago, Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 said:

Not to get off topic, but what the heck is THAT? And how would they enforce it?

Believe it or not many cities in CA have “trash police”. Not kidding. 

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

25 minutes ago, Pat Riot said:

Believe it or not many cities in CA have “trash police”. Not kidding. 

I believe it. But rob somebody on the street, THAT'S okay.

[Pat Riot]

7 minutes ago, Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 said:

I believe it. But rob somebody on the street, THAT'S okay.

It seems that way. (Shakes head)

[Gungadin]

1 hour ago, Pat Riot said:

Believe it or not many cities in CA have “trash police”. Not kidding. 

 

Ahh, the CA way to create jobs.  In NJ you can't pump your own gas....last I got gas there.

 

I hate when the local government tells me who is the contract garbage collector and what I will pay.  Seems like the mafia and government in bed together.

[Buckshot Bear]

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/aug/23/full-of-beans-scientists-use-processed-coffee-grounds-to-make-stronger-concrete

[Wallaby Damned]

We throw our grounds in the wood stove (bacon grease goes in there too; never down the drain) in the winter or they go out to the chickens when the walk isn’t as cold. They seem to enjoy it in the morning as much as I do!  Otherwise we put them in the landscaping to deter snails and slugs. Sometimes down the disposal as I’ve heard, like others, that it’s good for the system. Can’t imagine it hurts given other things we “dump” down the pipes. 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Had a Sergeant Major who grew roses around the Barracks.  After every breakfast he would gather the coffee grounds and any left over tomato juice and put them the rose beds.

 

I copied him when we bought a house and had the best looking flowers in Southern California...especially my Chrysler Imperial and Golden Sunset roses.....and Lantana loved it, too.

[watab kid]

i put them in our compost area , along with summer grass and fall leaves , other food wastes and plant debris 

[Subdeacon Joe]

When the recycling craze really kicked in here the disposal company gave us 3 milk crate sized bins, one for paper, one for plastic, one for glass.  We were supposed to put them out with the regular trash bins every week.  The first few times the wind whipped a lot of the newspapers out of the paper bin, so I started putting a rock on top.  Got a nasty note from the garbage company about it.  Also got notes about the glass I put in the glass bin, and some of the plastics - the plastics they didn't like just got tossed onto the sidewalk or our lawn.  Finally said, "Eff it!" and just put everything in the trash since I couldn't seem to make them happy.  

Went to a downtown "Wednesday Night Market" and saw that the company had a booth, went up and told them what was happening and how their people had made it impossible to recycle.  Unless they were willing to police up the newspapers that blew around, they would have to contend with a rock on top of the papers,  broken glass is still glass and can get melted down, and if plastics had the little recycle symbol on them they went into the bin, I wasn't going to try to learn all the nuances of the code.  But since they didn't like that, everything was just getting tossed into the trash.

Later they went to single container recycling, but lots of exceptions to what plastics could go in, what type of glass.

Now things like uncoated paper plates, pizza boxes, paper napkins, and paper towels can go into the compost bin.  Also, now, bones and fats, which didn't used to be allowed. 
|The irony is that about the only thing that actually gets used is the yard waste - gets composed and sold.  I've seen several studies that show at least 90% of all plastics that are "recycled" end up being shipped to Asia, where it just gets dumped into landfills or the ocean.  I wasn't able to find how much of the glass that goes into recycle bins actually gets reused, although some articles seemed to hint that maybe a third of it does get reused.  Seems to me that if noting else it could get ground up and used in roadbeds.

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

They tried to separate glass by color. The result was never the right color. I think it turned out that most recycled glass went into ceramic tiles.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

12 hours ago, Gungadin said:

 

Ahh, the CA way to create jobs.  In NJ you can't pump your own gas....last I got gas there.

 

I hate when the local government tells me who is the contract garbage collector and what I will pay.  Seems like the mafia and government in bed together.

We have about six trash companies and get to pick our own.  I have Waste Management, the folks across the street and on the south of me both use Patriot.  Another has Western Waste and there are some others.  Waste Management and Patriot pick up on Friday, the others are scattered out over the other four week days.

[bgavin]

Coffee grounds go into my bride's compost bin, then onto her garden.
Otherwise, they go into the "CA Mandated Green Waste" bag, then into the Green Waste trash can.

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

On 11/26/2023 at 5:25 PM, Pat Riot said:

Believe it or not many cities in CA have “trash police”. Not kidding. 

And yet another example of tax dollars at work.