Instead of throwing out your used coffee grounds, recycle them

FLUVANNA COUNTY, V.A. — Did you know you can recycle your used coffee grounds? That’s what a new program in Virginia is doing to help people in the garden and beyond.

This idea was started by Gary Greenwood, who started his own recycling program when he learned 60 million metric tons of coffee grounds are dumped into landfills. He even asked his local Dunkin’ Donuts.

The store is giving him 80 pounds of used coffee grounds a week.

Greenwood’s goal is to recycle more than 4,000 pounds of grounds every year.

“Some people just put it in their compost pile and add more nutrients to that way,” explains Greenwood. “But it also keeps certain bugs away — like slugs and snails and that sort of thing. So that you know, you sprinkle it around your plants.”

Greenwood says he hopes to put more pick-up buckets like this around his community and get more people involved.