Making the switch from a daily visit to your local coffee shop to brewing your morning pick-me-up at home should help your budget and free up your schedule, if only just a little. Just make sure you know how to dispose of your coffee grounds, or you could end up dealing with a plumbing or septic tank disaster.
How Should You Dispose of Coffee Grounds?
The best way to dispose of coffee grounds is to simply throw them away in your garbage can. If you have a compost bin or a garden, coffee grounds can be a nice addition to either one to help bring acidity to soil, but coffee grounds should never go down the drain or in the toilet.
Even if you don’t own a septic tank, a cesspool or your home’s plumbing can struggle with coffee grounds. No matter how fine the grounds are broken down, they can clump together and create blockages in your pipes. Even a single scoop of coffee grounds can get stuck in existing blockages and slow or worsen slow drains. Toilets are no exception. Cesspools and septic systems don’t break down coffee grounds as efficiently as other biodegradable waste, meaning you may need to schedule your next septic or cesspool pumping appointment earlier than usual.
What Else Shouldn’t Go in a Septic System?
Coffee grounds are just one thing you shouldn’t let go down your drains. In general, anything that isn’t biodegradable shouldn’t go in your septic system. That includes plenty of disposable toiletries like cotton swabs, paper towels, dental floss, and the like.
Beyond these everyday items, be careful what cleaning solutions go down your drains or get flushed down your toilet. These can be caustic, meaning they can hurt the bacterial ecosystem that works hard day in and day out to break down your natural waste.
While coffee is your mind, treat coffee filters just like coffee grounds. Light paper products like filters and even some ‘flushable’ products are too much for your septic system or cesspool, and just serve to take up space.
What Do I Do if I Have Coffee Grounds in my Septic System?
If someone puts coffee grounds down your drain, there are solutions available. You might just need to call a plumber to clean your drains out, but if a lot of grounds have made it into your septic tank or cesspool, now is a good time to contact Maui Pumping Services and schedule your next pumping service.
