So I decided to start composting at home, and the majority of resources I read suggested that coffee grinds are great for a compost pile. I don’t drink coffee at home, but I’ll have one or two cups at work a week while many of my co-workers have at least a cup a day.
Enter the Keurig K-Cups. We’re a small business, but still throw out at least 50 used K-Cups a week; sometimes more. We made a box to collect the used K-Cups and I take them home each Friday to add to my compost. At first, people didn’t know what the K-Cup box was for, so we added a sign so others would know it was OK to put their used K-Cups into the box.

K-CUPs sign


After we put the sign up and explained to people around the office what we were doing with the K-Cups it really caught on! Now everyone puts their used K-Cups into the box. Below shows what I did with the K-Cups to get the coffee grinds.

K-cups

Getting Ready to compost with K-Cup!

There’s more to a K-Cup than just coffee. There’s always a filter (compostable!) and sometimes a plastic disc. Unfortunately the outside shell and top lid isn’t recyclable.

After removing the coffee grinds you can see the plastic disc at the bottom of this K-Cup.

The emptied the coffee grinds. This was about 50 K-Cups worth!

This is Part 3 of our new Green Around the Office Series! Stay tuned for more posts related to sustainable actions Burton employees are taking to reduce their impact on the environment!
Click here to read Part 1-Recycling Refresher!
Click here to read Part 2-Going Green with a Leaf!