The Crazy Composter

I have a confession to make. I steal from my daughter’s preschool. (This also happens to be my place of employment as well as a Presbyterian church.)

Okay, well it’s not really stealing. It’s my job at the end of each preschool day to clean up the coffee pot in the kitchen. The church does not recycle or compost so I am supposed to just throw the used coffee grounds in the trash. Well, it just seemed plain wasteful to me – a gardener and a composter – to throw out those valuable coffee grounds. So, you guessed it, I started bringing them home. So, it’s really not stealing. It’s stuff that would have been thrown out anyway (at least that’s what I tell myself).

The first time I did this, I accidentally left the grounds in a container in my classroom. One of the teachers took one look at it and after ascertaining that the contents were indeed coffee grounds, she guessed it must belong to me (I guess I have “crazy composter” written all over me). When I saw her the next day she gave me a strange look and asked, “Is this yours?”

I admit it was a little embarrassing. I mean, who saves coffee grounds for God’s sake? When people learned what I was doing they did look at me a little differently. (You know the look…it’s the same look a dog gives you when you ask it a question and it cocks its head to the side.)

My embarrassment lasted about two seconds. This stuff was gold to me! My husband and I don’t drink coffee so being able to bring some grounds home for my compost bin was like hitting the mother load. Just the thought of that stuff enriching my compost pile, and eventually my garden had me singing in the car all the way home!

Sure, I could hit up the local Starbucks (which I have not completely ruled out, by the way), but why bother when I can get it from work?

So, before you throw out the grounds in your coffee filter each morning, just think of me, other gardeners, the planet, etc. and maybe you’ll be inspired to start your own compost bin. After all, it’s not nearly as embarrassing as stealing composting ingredients from a church.