September 22, 2009

5 Creative Uses for: Coffee Filters

Image courtesy AltUse.com

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A few weeks back, I posted about alternative uses for coffee. If you have extra coffee, chances are you also occasionally have extra filters. The reuse gurus over at AltUse.com have done it again with these brilliant ideas. Use filters to:

1. Filter cork out of wine. Place an unbleached filter over your glass and before you pour the wine. Minimal impact to taste.

2. Stop a razor nick from bleeding. Tear off a small piece of filter and cover the nick. Stems bleeding fast.

3. Clean windows. Use filters instead of paper towels. Picks up dirt and dust without leaving lint behind.

4. Absorb food grease. Durable filters soak up excess oil without disintegrating. Works for bacon, pizza, french fries, or any of your other favorite greasy foods. Bonus: After frying, pour leftover oil through a coffee filter, then use it again.

5. Line house plants: Prevent soil seepage by placing a coffee filter in the bottom of a plant pot.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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