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One of the benefits of K Cups is that you can quickly make the perfect dose of coffee without having to deal with messy coffee grounds. However, there are many uses for coffee grounds around the kitchen. For this reason, you may want to purchase a tool to open your K Cup after it cools. You can recycle the aluminum lid and then use the plastic cup and coffee grounds several ways to improve your kitchen. 

Grow Mushrooms 

Used coffee grounds make an excellent growing medium for certain types of mushrooms, such as oyster mushrooms. Although mushrooms are usually grown in larger batches, an open K Cup mixed with a bit of mushroom spores and saw dust can create a miniature mushroom garden for light flavoring in certain dishes. For larger batches, you can collect the grounds from your K Cups and keep them frozen until you have enough grounds to start your mushroom garden.  

If you are using this method for growing mushrooms, you may want to collect your own mushroom spores to regularly increase your mushroom supply as opposed to continuously ordering growing kits. After ordering your first kit, collect a few spore samples to use the next time you need to start a new batch of mushrooms. 

Jump-start Your Carrots 

While most plants prefer neutral soil, some plants, such as carrots and radishes, need a slightly acidic soil to flourish. Coffee grounds are an easy way to make your garden soil slightly acidic, and an open plastic K Cup can make an excellent planter to germinate seeds. To take advantage of this, you need to open your K Cup after use. Then, fill the excess space with soil and mix well. Add 3-4 seeds to each cup and spray with water 2-3 times a day to keep moist without forming puddles. When the seedlings come up, thin to 1-2 seedlings per cup and transfer, side by side, to a garden bed. 

Keeping your carrot seeds inside until they germinate gives you greater control over them and may increase your overall harvest. The coffee grinds can help your plants grow quickly, giving you a large, sweet harvest as opposed to tough, dry carrots. 

Keep Your Kitchen Smelling Fresh 

Used coffee grounds can remove foul smells from the air. This is because they have a high nitrogen content, making them a natural deodorizer. The high surface area of ground coffee also gives plenty of room for molecules involved in disgusting odors to cling to. 

Generally, coffee grounds are used in the refrigerator and the garbage disposal. To use them in the refrigerator, simply open your K Cup and place it in the refrigerator. The next day, remove your K Cup and replace it with a new one. Even after you use the K Cup to absorb odors, you can still use the grounds to fertilize your garden, so dump the contents of the K Cup in your compost bin and recycle the plastic cup. 

To use the grounds in your disposal, run water down your disposal. With a light stream of water, pour your K Cup into your disposal. Turn off your disposal and allow the grounds to sit for a few minutes before running the disposal with water to rinse the grounds away. You can repeat this every morning to keep your garbage disposal smelling fresh. 

You can also use coffee grounds to clean your hands after cutting onions, garlic, or other odorous foods. Simply keep an opened K Cup next to your sink, grab a pinch of the coffee grounds, and rub them over your hands before rinsing them. 

Although you can use any type of coffee grounds to complete these tasks, the single serving in a plastic cup provides a neat way to contain your coffee grounds and use them on a daily basis, making a K Cup an excellent solution for reusing coffee grounds. After you've used the coffee grounds, rinse and recycle the K Cup. Next time you pick up K Cups from a store like 11th Street Coffee, keep these recycling tips in mind.