Green Living Ideas
EnergyBeing Eco-Friendly with Coffee
If you're anything like me, coffee plays a central role in any good day, making it all the more important to buy, brew, and dispose of coffee in a manner consistent with green living. By paying a bit of attention to eco-friendly ways to enjoy coffee, we can feel good knowing that one of our favorite daily activities approaches our green living ideals.
Eco-Friendly Coffee Beans
First things first, make sure the coffee beans you buy conform to green living. Read the coffee package or do a little internet research on the coffee brand to find out if they support sustainable farming practices which do not strip the land of essential nutrients and discourage pest and disease cycles naturally. In addition, many companies now sell "fair trade" coffee, which means that the company is paying fair wages to farmers for their goods. Green living and fair trade make things better for people and the environment.
Specialty Roast Coffee is very conscious of selling green living-friendly coffee. In addition, they also donate a percentage of each order to your preferred charity.
Reusable Coffee Filters and Coffee Grinds
Brewing coffee, particularly only one or two cups, usually requires throwing out the coffee filter each day, not exactly a great green living practice. Avoid this useless waste by purchasing reusable coffee filters. This will satisfy big and small caffeine addictions while maintaining green living.
Additionally, brewing coffee inevitably generates coffee grinds as a waste product. The best way to deal with these coffee grinds in a green living-compatible manner is to use them as fertilizer in your garden or potted plants. Or give them to someone you know to use in their garden. Coffee grinds contain much needed nitrogen. If you're composting as part of green living, coffee grinds can also serve to add nitrogen to the compost pile.
Starbucks actually supports this green living practice by offering used coffee grinds for customers to use in their gardens upon request (or sometimes they just have a coffee grinds bin somewhere in the store for people to take).
