According to the latest issue of _Which?_, some of the main brands of
tea use polypropylene in the bags. The article says to "look out for
stitched bags with a tag (remove any staples before chucking them on
your compost heap)".


This explains why I sometimes find thinned down bags in the worm bin
output. Well, now I know to stop throwing them back in the top, which
is what I normally do with anything that isn't "fully digested" yet.

I don't see any reason to start removing staples, though --- I think
they rust away in the worm bin.

"Adam Funk" wrote in message
...
According to the latest issue of _Which?_, some of the main brands of
tea use polypropylene in the bags. The article says to "look out for
stitched bags with a tag (remove any staples before chucking them on
your compost heap)".


This explains why I sometimes find thinned down bags in the worm bin
output. Well, now I know to stop throwing them back in the top, which
is what I normally do with anything that isn't "fully digested" yet.

I don't see any reason to start removing staples, though --- I think
they rust away in the worm bin.

I started off putting my teabags in the compost- only to have to pick them
out again when it came to using it. I don't know whether it's all brands,
but PG Tips seem to be very resilient.


Ian

On Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:43:54 +0100, "Ian B"
wrote:


"Adam Funk" wrote in message
...
According to the latest issue of _Which?_, some of the main brands of
tea use polypropylene in the bags. The article says to "look out for
stitched bags with a tag (remove any staples before chucking them on
your compost heap)".


This explains why I sometimes find thinned down bags in the worm bin
output. Well, now I know to stop throwing them back in the top, which
is what I normally do with anything that isn't "fully digested" yet.

I don't see any reason to start removing staples, though --- I think
they rust away in the worm bin.

I started off putting my teabags in the compost- only to have to pick them
out again when it came to using it. I don't know whether it's all brands,
but PG Tips seem to be very resilient.

Our tea bags go straight into the kitchen/food waste bin (as advised
by the Council)

--
(¯`·. ®óñ© © ²°¹° .·´¯)

In article , Ian B
writes

[snipped]

I started off putting my teabags in the compost- only to have to pick them
out again when it came to using it. I don't know whether it's all brands,
but PG Tips seem to be very resilient.

You should use proper teabags, like Taylor's Yorkshire tea.

PG Tips is for chimps!

Roy.
--
Roy Bailey
West Berkshire.

In article ,
Roy Bailey wrote:
In article , Ian B
writes

I started off putting my teabags in the compost- only to have to pick them
out again when it came to using it. I don't know whether it's all brands,
but PG Tips seem to be very resilient.

You should use proper teabags, like Taylor's Yorkshire tea.

PG Tips is for chimps!

You should use proper tea, not teabags! But teabags rot down easily
enough in a traditional heap.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

wrote in message
...
In article ,
Roy Bailey wrote:
In article , Ian B
writes

I started off putting my teabags in the compost- only to have to pick
them
out again when it came to using it. I don't know whether it's all brands,
but PG Tips seem to be very resilient.

You should use proper teabags, like Taylor's Yorkshire tea.

PG Tips is for chimps!

You should use proper tea, not teabags! But teabags rot down easily
enough in a traditional heap.


PG Tips don't.

Nick wrote ..
Roy Bailey wrote:
Ian B writes

I started off putting my teabags in the compost- only to have to pick
them
out again when it came to using it. I don't know whether it's all brands,
but PG Tips seem to be very resilient.

You should use proper teabags, like Taylor's Yorkshire tea.

PG Tips is for chimps!

You should use proper tea, not teabags! But teabags rot down easily
enough in a traditional heap.

Quite agree, proper leaf tea used in a proper teapot tastes so much better.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

Tea bags in a teapot taste a lot better that tea bags in a cup.

Trouble is, I have to travel 10 miles to get Lapsang Suchong in leaf form.

In message ,
writes
In article ,
Roy Bailey wrote:
In article , Ian B
writes

I started off putting my teabags in the compost- only to have to pick them
out again when it came to using it. I don't know whether it's all brands,
but PG Tips seem to be very resilient.

You should use proper teabags, like Taylor's Yorkshire tea.

PG Tips is for chimps!

You should use proper tea, not teabags! But teabags rot down easily
enough in a traditional heap.


Not all do nowadays. A has been mentioned elsewhere in the thread, some
bags now utilise a polypropylene mesh which doesn't rot down.
--
Chris French

In article ,
chris French wrote:

You should use proper tea, not teabags! But teabags rot down easily
enough in a traditional heap.

Not all do nowadays. A has been mentioned elsewhere in the thread, some
bags now utilise a polypropylene mesh which doesn't rot down.

I stand corrected. That is disgraceful.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 2010-07-28, Roy Bailey wrote:

In article , Ian B
writes

[snipped]

I started off putting my teabags in the compost- only to have to pick them
out again when it came to using it. I don't know whether it's all brands,
but PG Tips seem to be very resilient.

You should use proper teabags, like Taylor's Yorkshire tea.

PG Tips is for chimps!


I checked the article again. It specifically lists Clipper, PG Tips,
Tetley, Twinings, and Typhoo as using polypropylene, and Jacksons of
Piccadilly as being fully biodegradable.

Apart than that, it says folded & stapled bags are more likely to
break down in the compost.

I'm still curious about the advice to remove the staples. I remove
the tags from teabags but leave the strings and staples (this applies
mainly to fruity and herbal tea in our house), and I've never noticed
the staples in the output, or had any complaints from the worms. ;-)

In message , Adam Funk
writes
On 2010-07-28, Roy Bailey wrote:

In article , Ian B
writes

[snipped]

I started off putting my teabags in the compost- only to have to pick them
out again when it came to using it. I don't know whether it's all brands,
but PG Tips seem to be very resilient.

You should use proper teabags, like Taylor's Yorkshire tea.

PG Tips is for chimps!


I checked the article again. It specifically lists Clipper, PG Tips,
Tetley, Twinings, and Typhoo as using polypropylene, and Jacksons of
Piccadilly as being fully biodegradable.

Apart than that, it says folded & stapled bags are more likely to
break down in the compost.

I'm still curious about the advice to remove the staples. I remove
the tags from teabags but leave the strings and staples (this applies
mainly to fruity and herbal tea in our house), and I've never noticed
the staples in the output, or had any complaints from the worms. ;-)


I suspect it's a saftey thing, just in case a staples doesn't rust way
and someone was to spike their hand on it or something.
--
Chris French

Adam Funk wrote:
I checked the article again. It specifically lists Clipper, PG Tips,
Tetley, Twinings, and Typhoo as using polypropylene, and Jacksons of
Piccadilly as being fully biodegradable.

Oh that's odd - we tend to have Clipper and haven't noticed a problem.

On 2010-07-30, wrote:

Adam Funk wrote:
I checked the article again. It specifically lists Clipper, PG Tips,
Tetley, Twinings, and Typhoo as using polypropylene, and Jacksons of
Piccadilly as being fully biodegradable.

Oh that's odd - we tend to have Clipper and haven't noticed a problem.

I'm not sure what we have, but I'm just going to keep throwing them
in. I think it's easier to pick out the few teabag "skeletons" I find
in the output than to rip the freshly used teabags open for the input.

Jacksons of Piccadilly were quoted as being fully degradable.