In article ,
martin writes:
|
| They are designed not to break down in a few hours of being fully
| saturated at temperatures from 100 Celcius down to 0. That is
| nothing like the conditions of any normal heap - as we know full
| well, saturated heaps do not compost well. They are NOT designed
| to be resistant to bacterial and fungal attack when damp.
|
| What about the effect of the tannin from the tea?

That is another reason that they don't break down in the teapot,
even when you go away on holiday leaving a pot of cold tea to
fester quietly to itself. The tannin is a fairly effective
bacteriostat, and there are very few soluble carbohydrates in tea.
While the bag is saturated with high-tannin water, it will last
for a very long time (as clothing does in peat bogs).

In a compost heap, the tannin will leach from the surface (i.e.
the bag), and there will be tannin-resistant bacteria, anyway.
But the most important differences will be the extra oxygenation
because it is no longer saturated, and the longer timescale,
allowing the bacteria time to grow.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.