Think Green Live Clean

Photo Credit: Joshua Stevens

After my mom makes coffee for herself in the morning, I use the single cup water heater to make a cup of tea.  I know there’s a coffee filter with coffee grounds in there that will make my tea taste bitter if I leave it, so I take it out, and there is always the morning conundrum: Trash or Compost?  

The odd part about this, is that I will throw out the coffee grounds AND coffee filter, without giving it another thought.  So I thought that with this article, I can educate myself a bit about composting.

According to the EPA, the following items are compost-able:

• Animal manure
• Cardboard rolls
• Clean paper
• Coffee grounds and filters
• Cotton rags
• Dryer and vacuum cleaner lint
• Eggshells (NOT what’s inside)
• Fireplace ashes
• Fruits and vegetables
• Grass clippings
• Hair and fur
• Hay and straw
• Houseplants
• Leaves
• Nut shells
• Sawdust
• Shredded newspaper
• Tea bags
• Wood chips
• Wool rags
• Yard trimmings

What else?  There is a whole list of things, here that I bet you didn’t know could be composted.

So, the answer to my earlier question: YES, compost the coffee filter.  It also did not take that much effort to find out this information.  I could have save approximately 3 coffee filters filled with grounds from the trash if I just looked it up before.

Find out more about what you can and can’t compost here.