Cookerati

Buying organic certified fair trade coffee is one way to make your coffee green, but that’s just the beginning.  You need to think about what you can do next.  Some things you can do are frugally green or obvious but others may seem a little further than you are willing to go. 

• Buy only what you need/ Make only what you need.

When you are buying coffee, think about how fast you will use it up and only buy that much. Then make sure you use it up.  I know some coffee aficionados want their grounds super fresh and only keep it for a short amount of time.  In that case, buy it in smaller amounts.  However, only do this if you are replenishing your stock that often anyway.  I buy a bag and use it up before I get another one.  That way the new one is as fresh as it can be.  Also, consider how much you will drink and only make that much.  Single serve machines are good for families where only one person drinks coffee.  That way you are only making what you need when you need it.  If you have a bunch of people drinking coffee, then make as much as you would use up quickly and then go for single servings after that.  Don’t make a whole pot just in case someone else might want it.  It will probably be wasted.

• Don’t pour that coffee down the drain!

Use it instead for your composter.  I have a bowl near the sink in my house, a bucket on the porch and a composter out back.  We use the bowl to bucket to composter method.  When the bowl is full it gets emptied into the bucket.  The bucket gets emptied every other day into the composter. I also throw my grounds into the bowl.  This isn’t easy to do if you live in an apartment.  However, I lived in Queens growing up and we did have a compost pile at that time.  Now they make great looking composters to contain it all. My grandfather used to take the eggshells and coffee grounds and bury them around his plants.  A few years ago we visited my (at the time) 89 year old Uncle and he was still doing that.  You can too!

•  Reusable all the way!

I know you think I’m talking about your mugs and cups.  Yes, I am.  However, I’m not only talking about mugs and cups.  When I’m at work I try and remember to bring my mug to get a cup of coffee in the cafeteria.  I chastise myself when I forget.  I definitely use mugs and cups at home.  I have travel mugs on hooks screwed into the side of my cabinets to make them easy to find. 

What else can be reusable?  How about filters?  When my daughter received a coffee machine for her Christmas gift, I went and found a filter for it.  Sometimes you have to search hard to find what you want.  I have a Senseo single cup machine.  They sell specially made filter pods for the machine.  Every time I used them I wondered if I could find something reusable so that I didn’t have to waste all of that filter paper.  I bought Ecopads on Amazon, but that was only two plastic filter packs for a good deal of money.  I found a better deal online and if I could remember where I’d tell you.  So I pack all my filters in the pod tin that came with my machine and when I need a cup, I fill a couple of filters with coffee grounds and run them through one at a time.  It doesn’t take long.  I rinse the grinds out and stick it in the dishwasher to run with the rest of the dishes.  Rinsing them might be good enough, but I’m just trying to get the grounds out, so I use water that’s soaking in another pot instead of from the tap.  There are reusable keurig cups also. It’s also frugal to use the reusables because you get more coffee in a regular bag, than the bag with the filter packs, for less money.  If I have people coming over though I will use the filter packs to make it easier on my guests.

• Gray water?

This may be going further than most of us want to consider dealing with.  If you are rinsing out your reusable filter packs in water, you can do it over a bowl and then pour the rinsing into the compost bowl or another water bowl and pour it over the plants.  We haven’t started it yet, but we’re considering it.  My husband already hauls the water from the dehumidifier out to the garden, plus we use rain barrels. 

I think most people believe we do what we do because we’re frugal.  The truth is that we do it to lessen our impact on the earth’s resources.