Can you compost tea and teabags?

[ACSAPA]

Hi guys. I'm a frequent coffee drinker, but lately I've been drinking a lot of black tea, green tea and Earl Gray tea,
Is the tea in used teabags okay to throw in the compost pile? Does it benefit plants at all if you put it on them like coffee grounds or should I just throw my used teabags and loose tea out?

 

[Yatte]

Composting tea sounds like a great idea, I suggest you remove the tea leaves from the bags though. My mother uses tea leaves in her garden, especially for her hydrangeas, and Azaleas. She believes it turns the soil more acidic, giving the plants a good platform to grow on. I found an interesting article on National Geographic that explains composting tea, I will add the link below. If I understand correctly the tannin found in tea have quite a profound effect on the growth of your plants.

Link: http://greenliving.nationalgeographic.com/compost-tea-leaves-2884.html

 

[maddie]

Tea is as good as coffee for plants. I drink a lot of green tea and i throw the leaves into my pots. if you use tea bags it would be a good idea to cut up the bag and loosen the leaves. Most bags contain polypropylene and are mot completely degradable.
Use tea leaves for plants that love an acidic soil. Gardenias hibiscus etc,love acidic soil. but never use an excess of tea leaves on one plant.

 

[Guardian]

I always just open the tea bags and dump the leaves in with my plants. Hasn't harmed them so far. Actually, come to think of it, the one I dump them in is doing way better than the rest.

I did't know that some tea bags had Polypropylene, so thanks for that. I had always imagined they were compostable, they just took longer. Glad I haven't been dumping them as well.

 

[mandikl0721]

My husband drinks a fair amount of coffee and some tea, and he's just been dumping the grounds and bags in the compost bucket, and then with everything else that goes into the compost bin. I'll have to let him know about the teabags, although I'm a bit surprised that with all the greenie movement and move towards more natural products that teabags aren't being made to be more biodegradable.

 

[Pat]

I have been adding coffee and tea leafs to my plants for years. I just recently started to take the kitchen was and ground it up to add to my rose bush soil. Last summer was the worst year for my plants outside, it was very hot and I didn't spend enough time with the plants. This year I am going to take better care of the plants.

 

[Meowmie]

Tea leaves and grounds always go in my compost. Don't forget your eggshells! Crush them up good first.

 

[Jack Rouse]

If you know a friendly coffee shop owner that makes a lot of ground coffee, as for the grindings, put them around young plants, they are good as a slug deterrent, when dug in at the end of the season they also rot down quickly.

 

[btatro]

Hmm I add tea, but have never cut it out of the bags. Is that an absolutely necessary step? Will it still be beneficial if that is not done?

 

[Stacy Springer]

Tea in the bags go into my compost. I don't recall seeing signs of the bag's after a few weeks.

 

[zigs]

Most tea bags in the UK are synthetic now & don't rot down in the compost. What was wrong with using paper I ask myself??

 

[Carolyn]

I have added tea and coffee grounds to my compost for years. I never knew or even thought that the bags might contain plastic. I just noticed they never seemed to degrade. The last few years we have been using loose tea since we make it by the potful anyway since it's cheaper that way. When I did use the bags I ended up opening them because they would just sit there and not compost. By all means use the tea in your compost it will only do good things to the soil.

 

[ChilliGirl]

Composting tea sounds like a great idea, I suggest you remove the tea leaves from the bags though. My mother uses tea leaves in her garden, especially for her hydrangeas, and Azaleas. She believes it turns the soil more acidic, giving the plants a good platform to grow on. I found an interesting article on National Geographic that explains composting tea, I will add the link below. If I understand correctly the tannin found in tea have quite a profound effect on the growth of your plants.

Link: http://greenliving.nationalgeographic.com/compost-tea-leaves-2884.html

Thank you for sharing this very interesting article. I've been using tea bags on my hydrangeas for years - it definitely helps to turn them that beautiful blue that's so difficult to achieve.

I didn't realize that you should remove the leaves from the bags either - I thought they were all paper and would degrade. I haven't noticed that they haven't degraded, but I'll certainly separate them from now on.

 

[zigs]

Kept finding unrotted empty tea bags in the compost, so it gets out somehow

 

[claudine]

Every day, I drink gallons of tea, so I have a lot of different tea bags. I must give them a closer look.
How to tell the difference between a synthetic tea bag and a paper one? To me, they all look like paper. I had no idea that some of them shouldn't be composted.