IMPORTANT: Tea Bags

[bikermike]

well, there's plastic in them. I sometimes find the ghost mesh, sometimes I don't. But plastic fairies don't collect it, so it's somewhere.

We have just bought a pack of the PG to see if it tastes OK or not.

[Muddy_Boots]

IMPORTANT: Tea Bags

Hi there

Don't know if you know this but if you have been adding tea bags to your compost I hope you have cut the bags open and only composted the tea and not the bag as well. In the past tea bags contained a thin plastic mesh so that the bag didn't split when being squeezed or handled too roughly when wet which was difficult to spot, this has now changed what with the war on plastic that's going on in the press up and down the country.

PG tips pyramid bags are now made without this plastic mesh so the whole Tea bag can be composted safely without the thought that there is plastic contamination in your compost. The only reason I know this was because I bought a box recently and the bags were faulty and some were split so I phoned their helpline and told them, they said they had removed the plastic from their bags and had some problems in the production process which had now been fixed and sent me £10 in vouchers.

Not sure if other companies have done the same but it looks like Brooke Bond have removed this plastic mesh from ALL its tea products from now on. Be vigilant as to the possibility that your tea bags may contain plastic if they are not made by Brooke Bond, they do not have to mention this on the box so just be aware.

[Nicos]

Clipper teabags are compostable too

[Snoop Puss]

Hi Muddy Boots, there's a link to an article in the Guardian in this thread started by Biker Mike: https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...way_95974.html

I was shocked when I read about plastic in tea bags.

[veggiechicken]

Tea Bag threads merged - to confuse you all.

[1Bee]

It's weird, because it's only in recent years I've noticed the bags surviving, drifting about in the finished compost. I just pick 'em out when I come across them. Some must be breaking down in some sense, because what I see doesn't come anywhere close to the volume we use...

C'mon Yorkshire Tea (me) and Tetley (Husband) bring us your compostable tea bags...

[Thelma Sanders]

Some must be breaking down in some sense, because what I see doesn't come anywhere close to the volume we use...

Tetley for me as well..

[Muddy_Boots]

Tea Bag threads merged - to confuse you all.

It don't take alot to confuse me VC

[veggiechicken]

Join the Club.

[hologramgarden]

I just pick 'em out when I come across them. Some must be breaking down in some sense, because what I see doesn't come anywhere close to the volume we use...

I've noticed the same, the ones that do survive seem really easy to spot but there are definitely a lot of them that fully degrade... odd.

[bikermike]

Ironically, since my early post on this, we have gone full balls (oo-err) for caffeinated tea, but not for decaff, as we've not found a decaff loose tea we like. I now dry the bags and empty them. I think I've got peak hippy...

[rary]

Ironically, since my early post on this, we have gone full balls (oo-err) for caffeinated tea, but not for decaff, as we've not found a decaff loose tea we like. I now dry the bags and empty them. I think I've got peak hippy...

Why don't you reuse them
One other point I have come across small balls of what looks like plastic when using worm cast so I wonder if the worms can roll the plastic out the way

[toomanytommytoes]

Why don't you reuse them
One other point I have come across small balls of what looks like plastic when using worm cast so I wonder if the worms can roll the plastic out the way

Are they like tiny lemons, yellow to dark amber in colour? If so, they could be worm eggs.

[1Bee]

Bikermike, that is indeed full hippy....

I don't even take the plastic tape off cardboard when it goes for compost, reasoning it's easier to pull it out of compost than strip it off the boxes...

[bikermike]

Why don't you reuse them

Peak Hippy, not peak student...