Reuse and recycling of coffee grounds: the power of the handmade product

Photo credit Carmela Kia Giambrone

Coffee, the unmissable protagonist of the scent that you hear in the morning when you wake up thanks to that "someone" that I prepare it with sweetness, lends itself to a thousand and a use even after having sipped it.

This is the reason why I thought it was the precaution to preserve it by drying it, then adding it to the soil to make the substratum #fertile and rich again.

In this way, you can not concentrate on us in some parts of the #garden so you certainly will not risk to "burn" the #root, come often instead you hear, so do not worry use it with calm but with common sense.

Another reason to be able to add it to our facilities is better to finish it in the #compost: in this case it will not be necessary drying in advance but just turn it upside down with our waste in our composter and magically disappear with all the rest becoming fragrant #homemade compost.

Photo credit Carmela Kia Giambrone

Another #natural remedy and home-green use we can get from the #coffee grounds is to use it as a repellent for #insects, ants and snails: try to believe, its strong aroma and its acidity will remove these annoying visitors from flowers, #plants and from our home.
Naturally being a non-toxic and #naturalremedy, the effectiveness will certainly not be that of a toxic and chemical repellent, but it will still work well!

A use however far from what you can do from gardening is to turn it into a perfect #beauty remedy for our #body: thanks to its caffeine content (albeit moderate) and its granular physical shape, it lends itself to become a wonderful #bodyscrub, perfect to fight #cellulite rolls and water retention, asphyxiated and dull #skin and instead make the epidermis of thighs, belly, buttocks soft, silky and toned.

To achieve the perfect body scrub, just mix it in equal parts to the fine #sea salt (useful in many other beauty preparations) and #coconut butter or shea (in short, what you have at home), mixing everything well and creating a "little cake".

On the moist skin and in the #shower, spread it generously on the body and #massage with slow and rotary movements for at least five minutes, then with a loofah sponge gently massage the body sweeping it away from the #skin.

Result? skin renewed and soft, silky as ever and without the use of those bad (for us and the #environment) scrub with plastic balls #horror the so-called plastic microbeads.

Growing Lab – Maurizio Montalti – mushrooms 3d print @ Fuorisalone 2016 - on Design week on Milano
Photo credit Carmela Kia Giambrone

Last experience to be done for the #recycling of coffee grounds is certainly to grow #mushrooms starting from a substrate of coffee grounds to be reused (reuse-recycling-reuse!) Since mushrooms, in fact, by their nature they are not exactly picky and grow on practically any natural and semi-natural substrate.

#MaurizioMontalti, an engineer with an artist's soul, thanks to his passion for mushrooms, has even created objects from a material, #organic, created by these fantastic "natural organisms" that grow thanks to plant and synthetic waste.

In his #OfficinaCorpuscoli, #GrowingLab, Montalti fully expresses his desire for creation in harmony with the natural cycle of #life and death, the theme of inspiration for his own work.

I had the pleasure of seeing his creations at the #Fuorisalone 2016 and I was pleasantly surprised and surprised.
Choosing and researching new materials, eco and bio-compatible is a challenge on the one hand wonderfully utopian and on the other side very timely and demonstrates a brilliant and dreaming mind.

Photo credit Carmela Kia Giambrone

But, to return to our reuse and recycling project, here are a few simple steps how to do this semi-indoor cultivation:

Collect your coffee grounds for two or three weeks, place them in a small perforated plastic bin (make small holes to allow the substrate to aerate), when you have enough. then you can add the spores of the mushrooms you want to grow (I use these) that are the easiest and that I love but you can also grow the shiitake if you want.

Photo credit Carmela Kia Giambrone

So sow the mycelium just like you would with simple seeds, then covering them with our coffee-ground.

add some sawdust (of good quality) when you spread the mycelium and then you can use your drums with a perforated plastic film. keep well in the dark and in the humid heat for about 10 days, time that will serve to start developing with mushrooms. try not to open constantly to control the situation because this will ruin the subtle microclimate that laboriously will be creating useful for their growth (around 20 ° C the temperature is perfect).

in the morning open, steam the surface with water and close the film, the right amount and not too much otherwise will grow mold (if this were to reduce the water and wait).

Do not give up, the first time I did not succeed, but then once the corners of the process were blunted, they happily managed to make my harvest.

seeing is believing!

After all, brave adventurers like the guys I interviewed #BacktotheRoots or big companies like the #Espresso kit have applied this wonderful and very simple re-use process, getting amazing results: what do we have less? we experiment and enjoy our desire for spontaneous self-production!

If you want to know more about homemade compost read my "Dalle bucce nascono i fiori" and my blog http://www.equoecoevegan.it/compostieradiy/