A Recycled Advent Calendar is a perfect family craft and you get to re-use K-Cups that could be filling up a landfill! We use a Keurig at our home. At first, I was concerned about the cost but realized we weren’t throwing away coffee so it made sense for us. There was still one thing that bothered us….. throwing away all the K-Cups. It seems like a huge environmental footprint when you think of the billions of cups being thrown away…. actually 2.8 billion cubic feet of waste in our landfills every year to be exact!  16 million US households now own single-serve brewers and that equates to 9.6 BILLION cups every year.  Well, now there is a handy way to recycle those cups, The Recycle A Cup. It is specifically designed to help you split the K-Cups into their individually recyclable pieces.

recycle a cup in it's box Skip to my Lou used this to cut the tops off the K-Cups to make the recycled advent calander
Perfect Tool For Crafters!
recycle a cup with a K-Cup placed in it with the top sitting in front.

It cuts and separates the Keurig K-Cups for recycling. Load the used K-Cup in the Recycle A Cup holder.

Place the lid onto the holder, and twist the lid 1/4 of a turn. Press both cartridge buttons. Keep the buttons pressed and turn the lid completely around the cup.

recycle a cup  with a K-Cup inside with the top on ready to cut.

It neatly separates the pieces for easy recycling and crafting!

recycle a cup opened with the cut K-Cup pulled out with the bottom separated so the coffee and paper can be put in compost and the plastic recyled.

So throw the grounds and paper on the compost pile, foil into the recycling, and be sure to save the plastic cup to make an amazing Advent Calendar!

You can order your Recycle A Cup through recycleacup.com and also get FREE SHIPPING!

Now let’s make a Creative and Cute Advent Calendar! recycled advent calendar

To get started on the Recycled Advent Calendar

You will need:

  • 2-inch hole punch
  • patterned paper
  • tape roller
  • green cardboard (or cardboard painted green
  • dimensional glitter sticker numbers
  • glue gun
  • mini candy bars.
recycled advent calendar supplies: mini candy bars, 2 inch hole punch, paper, number stickers, glue

The plastic K-Cups cups hold a bite-size candy bar perfectly!

K-cups with the top cut off with mini candy bars inside for the recycled k-cup calander.

Punch 25- 2 inch circles to cover the tops of the cups.

2 inch hole punch and cute green Christmas card stock to be punched out to cover the top of the cup for the recycled advent calendar.

Stick a number on each of the circles.

recycled advent calendar numbers on top of the punched tops for the cups. K-cups on the side for the the recycled advent calendar.

Place the tape around the back edge of each circle.

recycled advent calendar elmers glue on back of top

Place circles on top of the cups.

punched out circles with stuck on numbers on the cups for the recycled advent calendar

Cut a tree shape out of green cardboard.

Christmas tree cut out from green cardboard for the back of the recycled advent calendar.

Hot glue cups to the green cardboard.

Tops glued on to the K-cups with cute Christmas pattern tops and gold glitter numbers. for the recycled advent calendar

What a great way to upcycle those plastic cups!

recycled advent calendar with cups glued onto the green cardboard tree in date order.

Please tell all your friends about Recycle A Cup. We can each make this small contribution to our environment that will have a significant impact!

More Great Christmas Ideas

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About Cindy Hopper

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Comments

  1. For latest Scrap Buy and Sell offers, please visit at.

    Learned from Tokyo, Japan region from October 2 this year, to promote the recycling of rare metals and other resources, in Tokyo to carry out mobile phone
    recycling pilot. But, Vo – IP systems provide a great way to use
    more of the computer and Internet resources that are
    already available instead of taking the time to
    create and use more.

  2. What a fantastic idea!!

    I love that recycling is on your mind; the magnitude of trash from one simple product is mind boggling. Being able to do something about it is empowering!

    What a fun spin on traditional advent calendars!

  3. I love this so much! I am always looking for advent calendar ideas! I am soooo pinning this to my advent calendar board on Pinterest!

  4. So so great! That’s fantastic, both the product and the project you came up with. Love it.

    (And yes, I’m still around. Hope you’re doing well!)

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