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I've just got myself my first compost bin, which I'm very excited about.

I have been throwing a lot of vegetable waste and paper in, also tea bags, but I have read somewhere that tea bags can be made of nylon and there fore aren't any good for recycling.

I think mine are paper, but does anyone know if the difference is quite distinct or could I be chucking the wrong ones in?

I know this seems trivial but we go through loads of teabags so I would imagine they will make up a large proportion of my composting.

It's the first I've ever heard of nylon teabags - all of ours go in the compost, and we've never had little plastic remnants. Even so (although I'm ready to stand corrected) I think nylon is chemically inert, so it wouldn't do any harm.

adam
i think it depends on the makers of the tea bags... my mum claims all hers turn up again not rotted down... she uses pg tips. I use co-op fair trade and they seem to rot down no problemo

one tip - egg shells can go in the compost too.. and these can turn up whole when you turn out the compost later on. The thing to do with them is when you crack and egg.. put the shells in a bowl or something to one side to dry out. a few days later the shells crumble really easily, and then you can bung them in the compost

Drink loose leaf tea!

hamster wrote:Drink loose leaf tea!

prolly should - i have one of those metal teabag things you can put the loose stuff in... tho its taken long enough to train OH to make me a cup of tea as it is (he is confirmed coffee drinker)

I've heard that, too, that some don't rot down too well... Mine do - never see them again. Most are Ridgeways organic, or those fancy herbal and spicy ones...

red wrote:

hamster wrote:Drink loose leaf tea!

prolly should - i have one of those metal teabag things you can put the loose stuff in...

A tea infuser!

Nev

We only use loose leaf tea now and I find it much nicer than bags, it also means you can use less tea as most tea bags have too much tea in them for one cup.

I find the tea pot with built in infuser very useful.

Wombat wrote: A tea infuser!

We call them tea eggs in Germany...

Thanks for your tips, especially about the egg shells.

As for loose leaf I have tried that, but I am such an incredibly messy person it has never worked out particularly well for me.

As I'm still pretty new for this I'm greatful for your tips. I have a big plastic compost bin which I bought from the council, it's tucked away at the side of my shed at the moment, does it need a lot of sunlight to warm it up? I sort of read something about hot composting but couldn't really get my head around it.

Andy Hamilton wrote:We only use loose leaf tea now and I find it much nicer than bags, it also means you can use less tea as most tea bags have too much tea in them for one cup.

I find the tea pot with built in infuser very useful.

I like the look of that one, even I could manage that, do you have to fill it right up to get the benefit though?

frogbox wrote:As I'm still pretty new for this I'm greatful for your tips. I have a big plastic compost bin which I bought from the council, it's tucked away at the side of my shed at the moment, does it need a lot of sunlight to warm it up? I sort of read something about hot composting but couldn't really get my head around it.

hot composting is not really about sunlight, but about the mix of materials going in being just right, and hot composting thingy starts. The centre for alternative technology has some good info on it.. i seem to remember
I think warm and sunlight might help speed up composting.. but it will all rot down in the end. The issue is if you dont have a lot of space, you want to try and get it right to turn around the composting fast. it will still rot down even if you dont get hot composting going.. just takes longer

frogbox wrote:

Andy Hamilton wrote:We only use loose leaf tea now and I find it much nicer than bags, it also means you can use less tea as most tea bags have too much tea in them for one cup.

I find the tea pot with built in infuser very useful.

I like the look of that one, even I could manage that, do you have to fill it right up to get the benefit though?

Yes, but you can get small ones if you don't usually make a huge pot of tea. They're very useful, much easier than trying to fish soggy tea leaves out of the spout...

Or, you can get a regular teapot and get a teasock from Whittards (or, to be honest, make your own out of a bit of wire and an odd sock).

They're a lot less messy than dealing with tea strainers!

the.fee.fairy wrote:Or, you can get a regular teapot and get a teasock from Whittards (or, to be honest, make your own out of a bit of wire and an odd sock).

They're a lot less messy than dealing with tea strainers!

don't think I'd trust any of my old socks in a teapot, - but I reckon you could use the mesh bag provided with the packet of dried peas

we do have infusers - but dragon is not trained for loose tea

I tear the tea bags as I put them in the compost bin, they seem to disappear quite well