Each day as you clean out your coffee make and get ready to dispose of the coffee grounds, you may be wondering if you can put coffee grounds down the sink. A lot of newer coffee makers have built in filters that do not require paper filters making it a little harder to just dump the coffee grounds into the trash. With coffee makers like these or alternatives like a french press, the easiest thing to do is to rinse the coffee grounds down the sink drain, but is this the right thing to do? Do coffee grounds clog drains?
Coffee grounds should NOT be put down the sink because they can clump together when wet and over time create clogs in your drains that can be hard to fix on your own. Coffee grounds can also stick to grease and other food items that have made their way down the drain leading to quite the mess and build up in your drain. There are a lot of alternatives to washing them down the drain and many have great benefits that can be useful around your home. Read on to see other ways that you can use your old coffee grounds.
Can you put coffee grounds in the garbage disposal
You are probably also wondering if coffee grounds shouldn’t be put down the sink drain, can they go in the garbage disposal? Sorry, but the answer is the same! Coffee grounds should not be put in the garbage disposal. They are already ground up, so the garbage disposal will not do much to break them up, they will simply clump together again once they move past the garbage disposal.
If you don’t want to explore other uses for your coffee grounds and simply want to get rid of them, then throwing them in the trash is the best option. If you are using a coffee machine without a filter or a french press, you can simply take a spatula and scrape all the coffee grounds out into the trash.
What can coffee grounds be used for?
Used coffee grounds have several great applications around your home, that not only should you not be putting them down the sink, but you should be keeping them!
Add used coffee grounds to your compost pile
Coffee grounds are a great thing to add to your compost occasionally, but not every day.
Then use your compost as your fertilizer a few times during the season to improve the health and growth of your plants.
Hydrangeas
Coffee grounds can be added to the soil around your hydrangeas to add acidity to the soil and turn them that beautiful blue color. Do not add coffee grounds directly to the top of the soil around the hydrangea because in the warm humid months, this can create a mold growing around your plants. Instead, occasionally add the coffee grounds to your compost pile and add it to the soil that way.
Reduce odors
Coffee grounds can be used to reduce odors and can be placed inside your refrigerator in a small bowl to help absorb any foul, strong, or unwanted odors from other foods. You can also put coffee grounds in a small amount of water and heat them on the stove to reduce strong odors when you are cooking foods that may be particularly smelly like garlic or onions. Some will even wash their hands in coffee grounds to get rid of any unwanted smells on their hands, but remember…they should not go down the drain! If you’re going to do this, it’s best to wash your hands outside with an outdoor faucet or hose.
Conclusion
While it is certainly much easier to just rinse the coffee grounds down the drain…resist the urge! Coffee grounds are one of the top causes of kitchen drain clogs. Imagine what a mess that congealed grease and wet coffee grounds create together down in your drain. It may not happen right away when you put coffee ground down the sink, but before too long you’ll be calling a plumber to get you out of a sludgy, clogged drain mess!