Composting Used Coffee Pods

As I moved to the country, I finally had some space to start a compost pile.  As I read up about how to compost, I was amazed at what you could put in there.  Most people put food scraps and cut grass as a standard.  Some will actually find extra items to put in there.

When I was making a cup of coffee one morning with my coffee pods, I wondered if I could compost these.  Well you can.  The coffee inside the pods is a natural product that will break down over time.  It adds great nutrients to the soil and acts as a fertilizer. 

You can keep an old Ziploc or Tupperware container on your counter to toss the coffee pods into when they are used to save yourself a trip out to the compost pile for a small item.  I decided to buy a small metal garbage can that sits on my counter and has a charcoal filter on the top to keep the smell down.  I use it for coffee grounds and for all my food scraps.  It cost about $25 is an excellent way to easily get in the habit of composting.

One recommendation that I read on line was to actually break open the coffee pods a little bit to let the coffee come out.  The pod material is made of a simple cotton blend that will also break down easily in the soil so don’t think that you need to empty each pod and pull out the filter material.  If you are using K-Cups vs Coffee Pods, it is recommended that you remove the coffee from the KCup as that is mostly plastic and will not compost.  Espresso pods work in the same way and can also be composted. 

Thankfully the caffeine in the coffee has not been shown to transfer to any plants grown with the composted coffee!