Starbucks in a move to find ways to reduce landfill and to put garbage to good use is giving away their coffee grounds. I am not sure when this started but what really got me curious was a “Free” sign at my local Starbucks. Since there were no bags in the bin with the sign, I had to wait about 2-3 minutes for them to fill a new large bag of the fresh coffee grounds. I am not sure how much is in the bag but I guess it is more than a gallon of grounds.

The coffee grounds is offered chiefly for gardening since grounds like any other organic matter breaks down into nutrients such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. Starbucks commissioned a study in 1995 which was undertaken by the University of Washington College of Forest Resources in which they found the following nutrients in the Starbucks coffee grounds:

“Primary nutrients
Nitrogen 1.45%
Phosphorus ND ug/g
Potassium 1204 ug/g

Secondary nutrients
Calcium 389 ug/g
Magnesium 448 ug/g
Sulfur high ug/g"

Directions are to be found on the Starbucks website for those interested in using the coffee grounds in their garden.

In addition to being good for the garden coffee grounds makes a great addition to all manner of personal care items such as soap and body scrubs.

I used my Starbucks coffee grounds to make kitchen soap, a sugar and coffee body scrub and I added some to my favorite peppermint body wash for some exfoliation. Here is my recipe for Kitchen Grounds Soap made with the wonderful free Starbucks coffee grounds.

If you want a soap that is great for scrubbing and getting rid of dirt then use a large percentage of coconut oil in your formulation. This formulation has a hefty amount of grounds for good scrubbing action and the fresh scent of peppermint and rosemary. Coffee butter is added for the fresh scent of coffee that is endemic to kitchen soaps. The coffee scent helps to get rid of strong odors and tends to sweeten the blaring camphorous medicinal notes of rosemary and peppermint. Either way a soap is produced which smells great, gets rid of odors and will mechanically loosen the cooking yuckies from your hands.

Grounds Kitchen Soap

16 oz. Coconut oil
8 oz. Coffee butter
8 oz. Palm Kernel oil
10 oz. Distilled water
5.10 oz Lye
3-4 tablespoons Starbucks coffee grounds (add after trace)
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Soap Batch size = 32 oz.

Follow directions for regular cold process soap , adding this peppermint and rosemary mix at trace:

1/2 tsp Rosemary essential oil
1/2 tsp Peppermint essential oil

Source for Coffee Butter
Visit Magestic Mountain Sage , purveyers of all soapmaking supplies and some wonderfully fragrant coffee butter.