Coffee grounds and tea leaves: OK to scatter?

[Bootstrap]

I've heard people say that tea leaves and coffee grounds can be scattered without adversely affecting the environment. I've heard others say this violates LNT principles.

I have to admit, I've generally used tea bags and packed them out, but scattered coffee grounds because I didn't see any other practical approach. But I prefer loose leaf tea, and I'd take that if I felt OK about scattering the leaves.

Opinions?

[daddytwosticks]

Oh boy...here we go! I don't think there's a problem doing this...however, get ready for some strong opinions! :)

[WingedMonkey]

Since I use quart size family teabags I squeeze them out and pack them out. They got little staples in them. Taking them apart and dumping the leaves would just be more mess. Sometimes I use them to wipe out a pot, not often cause I don't often have anything left to clean out.

[Panzer1]

I'm guessing that if you scatter the grinds near a shelter it will attract animals.

Panzer

[Pedaling Fool]

Please don't do it. We've got enough problems with them invasive European earth worms.:)

[Namaste]

Oh boy...here we go! :)

LOL my first thought!

Don't see the harm. I put coffee grounds and used tea leaves right into the soil around my azaleas, rhododendrons and other acid-loving plants on my property. The woods are full of these plants. Again, don't see the harm as the plants thrive from the nutrients and I've never heard of any animal interested in coffee or tea.

[jerseydave]

Should be OK, but I'd suggest giving them a long soak in some boiling water first just to make sure they are sterile.

[ScrapIron]

Absolutely not. The leftover caffeine will cause the worms to die.

[ShakeyLeggs]

I wouldn't do it because the caffeine would tend to keep the wroms and critters up interrupting my sleep.

[Snowleopard]

I've heard people say that tea leaves and coffee grounds can be scattered without adversely affecting the environment. I've heard others say this violates LNT principles.

Which environment? A fertile lowland forest, a farm field and an alpine zone are very different. I've heard people say this sort of thing and leave garbage in places where it will take many years to degrade.

Above or close to treeline or on any bare rock area in the northeast, please don't.

Anyplace near a shelter or near any established campsite along the AT is heavily used and becomes a garbage dump if people dump garbage nearby. How far were you planning on carrying it? Tea leaves left 1/2 mile down trail from a shelter or campsite and several hundred yards away from the trail probably does no harm in a fertile lowland forest in summer.

This month there have been AT shelters down south that have 50 people in them or tenting nearby. If 1% leave anything, the area becomes unsightly.

For tea, if you use a teaball and let it cool and squeeze the water out, it won't weigh much. Carry it out with the rest of your garbage.

[grayfox]

The best answer is--please pack them out with your other garbage.

However, it depends a bit on where you are. I do compost these things at home minus the tiny staple or bits of plastic that are sometimes used. But I would think that the best place to dispose of this at an established camp would be in a well used fire pit. At least that would keep the mess all in one place.

The last thing I would do in a well used camp is to scatter this garbage. Think about kneeling down to place a tent stake and coming up with a glop of tea leaves stuck to your pants. Or how about finding somebodys yesterdays coffee grounds all over your down sleeping bag after cowboy camping after dark. You brought it in--take it out with you when you go.

[ScrapIron]

Also, please haul out all bodily wastes and toilet paper. If you get drunk at camp and vomit, please do it into a bag and haul it out.
There is nothing worse than putting one's knee into upchucked dehydrated food.

[earlyriser26]

Does this impact your carbon footprint?

[general]

putting your knee in puke does not impact your carbon footprint.

[general]

oh, and yeah, toss those tea leaves and coffee gounds out into the woods. it won't make any difference to the soil, or the organisms in it what so ever.

[earlyriser26]

putting your knee in puke does not impact your carbon footprint.
Good, you can never be too careful. Now are coffee grounds a carbon offset?:-?

[mweinstone]

the issues are simple.
carry out what you carry in or you are not leaveing "no" trace. your leaveing some trace. and then you go and argue its good for plants. your nievity astounds even me. and im so so nieve. as the previous poster said, all different times and places and manners of disposal contribute to properly disposed of . your unaware of all the rules. in wilderness we dispose of lots of things we packed in, cause we know how to do it and leave no trace. see? i personaly might be able to find the ideal time and place to dispose properly of your wad of tea leaves, but it wouldnt nessesarily be anytime your drinking tea. you might never walk by a thouroly propper place to rid your self of it on the AT. or you might. but its so damm unessesary. cant you see how foolish it would be if every single hiker was to place just one toe nail, one tea leaf , one clipping of hair , one peel of blister,....and one single ball of belly button lint,....on the trail ,.....each day....every day or so , up and down and all year round with dogs getting to leave poops unburried just cause their far off trail and so on,...do the math yo.its a stinking filthy mess compared to pristeen wilderness and still its so frikkin beautifull it aint no joke and its all we got,...and finally ill be out their doing what i do to annoy the hell out of litterbugs.

[general]

hell yes coffee impacts your carbon foot print. think about all those planes trains and automobiles that it takes to get all that coffee up here from old juan valdez. i don't know what carbon offset is, however. we don't use terms like that down south.

[WingedMonkey]

Not to worry. If you are stupid and or drunk enough to vomit in an area that I'm using it is very simple for me to cover it with your sleeping bag or your clothes. Depends on how big the spot is.

[mweinstone]

i want you all to do a mental exsperoment with me. im matthewski i wont hurt you.
imagine in your minds eye a pile of all the trash you ever got away with leaveing on the trail that does not conform to the leave no trace guidline of absolutly nothing but sweat spit properly buried poop and urine. eye do dos are acceptable but not covered under the geneva rules.lol. but im asking you to fess up to only yourself and in your mind look at the pile of crap youve tossed while hikeing the AT. MINE IS ABSOLUTLY HORENDUS. as a prominent trasher it makes no difference. to this day i scatter foods where i shouldnt. i hate myself and i know how to do it right but i get just as stupid as the next hiker when pumped full of trail partying. but the pile mostly is coffie grounds and some pasta water and a rollie but or two and maby i burnned a foil pack unsucssesfully in a tree stump in 08 and left it there . but to me i was acting stupid and like a stoned idiot. the point is, if your gonna preach clean, ya gotta admit we lie alot about it. no one is perfect. not even lwolf. but hes damm close.

[ScrapIron]

Not to worry. If you are stupid and or drunk enough to vomit in an area that I'm using it is very simple for me to cover it with your sleeping bag or your clothes. Depends on how big the spot is.

Hadn't thunka dat. :)

[Skidsteer]

if your gonna preach clean, ya gotta admit we lie alot about it. no one is perfect. not even lwolf. but hes damm close.

Lone Wolf packs out more trash in his beard by accident than the rest of us pack in our trash bags on purpose.

[Slosteppin]

You asked for opinions...

In my opinion if you can carry it in you can carry it out! I plan my food so I have as little garbage as possible. I like coffee but when backpacking I use instant coffee so there is less trash.

I strongly disagree with another poster who suggested putting trash in the fire pit. I am rather certain that someone cleans out those fire pits at least a few times each year. If that were not so then after about a year the fire pit would be a pile of ashes and garbage. Why should they haul out your garbage? Few hikers realize that the people who maintain trails and campsites don't really like to haul out trash.

I do not believe that coffee grounds scattered in the forest would do any harm. Any trash scattered in a heavily used campsite is a completely different subject.

[jesse]

Pack out tea bags, scatter, bury coffee/tea grounds.

[kanga]

Pack out tea bags, scatter, bury coffee/tea grounds.
ditto






tentententententententententen

[Bonjour]

If I'm hiking the Inca trail and I'm careful to drink varietal coffee from Peru, is it okay to return it to the earth from whence it came?

[kolokolo]

My inclination is to pack everything out.

It's a slippery slope. (Especially with loose tea leaves on it).

[JAK]

Bury tea leaves and coffee grounds, pack out liberals and tea baggers.

[SassyWindsor]

LNT Online Course for those who want to brush up.


http://www.lnt.org/training/OnlineCourse/

[Camping Dave]

Yes you can.

[Trailweaver]

If it wasn't there when you came, it shouldn't be there when you leave. The End.

[JAK]

The rest of the world is fair game though.
Use the coffee grounds and tea leaves to frack the hell out of it.

[mweinstone]

i know a bush.
its at pocohautass campsight.
kinda looks like a marsh elder.
or a greek olive.
whatever.
i threw a sardeen can behind it.
its still their.
it has almost rusted out.
not quite.
the old rolled lid and key still stuck to it.
i check it now and then.
i stand, sniffing and thinking.
about how things were back when i threw the can behind the bush.
it must have been the winter of 76.
maby 77.
maby spring.
but around there.
my friend jimmy canfield shaot a crossbow arrow in the tree above.
the alluminum shaft long ago lost its feathers.
but at just the right time of winter you can find the shaft on the branch.
my names mat im a litterbug.
we all are.

[Hikes in Rain]

Not to worry. If you are stupid and or drunk enough to vomit in an area that I'm using it is very simple for me to cover it with your sleeping bag or your clothes. Depends on how big the spot is.

Agreed. Note that you may well still be in that bag or clothes. Just sayin'.

[Pedaling Fool]

Speaking of fragile alpine ecosystems...what do eskimos do with their s**t and other wastes. Not being funny, the thought came to me the other day when I was watching a documentary on polar bears.

And what do they do when the men go on a hunt and are gone for days? And what about all that polar bear s**t and all the other critters? Gives one another perspective of the Great White North. What's under all that white:-?

BTW, I hear this is a real problem in the Himalayas, especially around Everest. So when someone mentions Alpine I wonder what exactly they're talking about. Not all alpine ecosystems are the same. And I use the term "alpine" loosely.

[vamelungeon]

I'm more in favor of common sense than "Leave No Trace" which is pretty much impossible to achieve.
I scatter coffee grounds.

[JAK]

Speaking of fragile alpine ecosystems...what do eskimos do with their s**t and other wastes. Not being funny, the thought came to me the other day when I was watching a documentary on polar bears.

And what do they do when the men go on a hunt and are gone for days? And what about all that polar bear s**t and all the other critters? Gives one another perspective of the Great White North. What's under all that white:-?

BTW, I hear this is a real problem in the Himalayas, especially around Everest. So when someone mentions Alpine I wonder what exactly they're talking about. Not all alpine ecosystems are the same. And I use the term "alpine" loosely.
Let's just say you don't want to be in a Muskox yard during spring thaw.
Not to mention 1 million years of thawing mammoth poop.

Serially, I think it does make sense to consider the sensitivity of the ecosystem, and how much human traffic there is and how much can be supported, potential introduction of invasive species, how fast whatever biomass you are leaving will decompose and what impact it will have. In some ecosystems a few coffee grounds and tea leaves are probablly beneficial. In drier more alkaline environments, like you might find in many parts of the PCT, probably not the case. In the Northeast, I think you probably do more harm packing biomass and adding it to landfills than you would if you were to leave it behind along with your poop in a descrete cat-hole some place, or scattered amongst some wet leaves. Coffee grounds and tea leaves are sources of nitrogen and decompose well when mixed with wet leaves or forest litter. The would help trees grow and help make up for whatever sticks you might burn in your kelly kettle or hobo stove, which are also better for the global environment than fuel cannisters and such, or even alcohol stoves. In some environments, you have to be more sensitive to local ecosystems, but not so much on the east coast as the drier parts of the west coast.

LNT is over-generalized, and is often out of touch with best practice from the point of view of global and even local sustainability. Sustainability should be stressed more than LNT.

[JAK]

I know in Canada we try and use the term "minimal impact" rather than "leave no trace".
I don't agree entirely with this because the term is somewhat ambiguous, because it can imply "minimal effort" rather than "best practice for sustainability".

The essential thing, I think, is that people take an interest and learn about the environment and natural processes, rather than follow artificial rules like LNT which try and keep the human world segregated from the natural world rather than re-uniting them into something harmonious and sustainable.

[Panzer1]

I like coffee but when backpacking I use instant coffee so there is less trash.

+1

I love fresh ground perk coffee. I'm having a cup right now. It taste much better than instant. But, when on the trail instant coffee is so much easier to deal with. Its lighter by far, takes up less space, no special coffee pot needed, quicker to make, takes less fuel to make and no grinds to dispose of or pack out.

In fact wasn't the first big use for instant coffee for soldiers in the field because its so practical.

Panzer

[rambunny]

if coffe & tea are growing there OK otherwise you are littering.

[JAK]

The stomp of your foot, on one mouse, could start an earthquake, the effects of which could shake our earth and destinies down through Time, to their very foundations. With the death of that one caveman, a billion others yet unborn are throttled in the womb. Perhaps Rome never rises on its seven hills. Perhaps Europe is forever a dark forest, and only Asia waxes healthy and teeming. Step on a mouse and you crush the Pyramids. Step on a mouse and you leave your print, like a Grand Canyon, across Eternity. Queen Elizabeth might never be born, Washington might not cross the Delaware, there might never be a United States at all.

So be careful. Stay on the Path. Never step off!