Innovative Uses of Coffee Grounds

Australian engineers have recently announced that they have devised a technique to recycle used coffee grounds to make stronger concrete.

They can make concrete nearly 30% stronger by incorporating processed coffee grounds into the material.

Meanwhile, a Danish chef has found a myriad uses for spent coffee grounds, including everything from flavoured vinegars and oils to kombucha and marinades, and even makes a “chocolate” by stone grinding coffee with fat and sugar.

Coffee Grounds: Beyond the Cup

Among the other weird and wonderful uses for coffee grounds that we have found are:

• Bug repellent in the garden, sprinkling the grounds around your plants to keep the bugs at bay.

• Flying insect repellent. Mosquitoes, wasps, and bees apparently hate the smell of burning coffee grounds!

• As an air freshener, apparently, coffee grounds are excellent for banishing odours from the fridge, from rooms where pets live, or in cars.

• Coffee grounds mixed into a paste with something like coconut oil and applied to the delicate area under your eyes can reduce inflammation and signs of ageing through the antioxidant properties of the coffee, stimulating blood flow and fighting free radicals!

• Grounds make excellent hair dye, apparently – but only if you are a brunette. You can also use them to disguise cracks in dark wood furniture.

• Believe it or not, apparently, in China, there is a company making trainers from coffee grounds and recycled plastic.

What other weird uses for coffee grounds have you come across?

Message or email us and let us know.