Composting Teabags

My hubby told me, the other day, that green guru Lucy Siegle reported an alarming find that 'tea bags (the stalwarts of compost bins and wormeries) are only 70-80% compostable thanks to the polypropylene webbing on today's bags. '

My first thought was Oh shit! That's probably going to mean that 70-80% of people stop composting their tea bags. Not a good thing.

I checked out her article and her links online and dug around a little further. I found various articles suggesting you should tear open the tea bags and just compost the tea, I found several mentions that people had stopped composting their tea and equally I read that various organisations such as WRAP that are supposed to know about these things say we should carry on composting our tea bags.

My plan is to firstly use up the tea bags I have AND I will certainly be composting them, and secondly to look into what tea bags don't use plastic in their bags.

Probably the words I read that most annoyed me were these:

"Teadirect’s Whitney Kakos said: “Most consumers don't notice (the polypropylene) and probably don't care.” (reported in Beverage daily.com)

I do understand that this plastic is there for a purpose as it is to do with the heat sealing of the teabags. I do understand that people don't want to have bits floating in their tea, but I do think that there are likely some perfectly viable biodegradable options.

Manufacturers do have to respond to market pressures and it is up to consumers to speak up and speak out about what they do and don't care about.

I want my teabags to be 100% biodegradable. Do you?

Take a look at this link for a new lease of life for an old (tea) bag:)

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5243911_uses-tea-bags.html

The kitchen compost caddy

Do you hate emptying the kitchen compost caddy?

I don't like the idea of using bags in my compost. It can surely only add to the time it takes for everything to decompose and besides, you have to buy them. But I did recently try out a new trick for my compost caddy. I have found that when I empty my compost bin and rinse it out it helps if I then tear up some egg box cartons to line the bottom. I've found that whatever gloopy mess I put on top comes out more easily when I have a cardboard layer on the bottom, making the emptying job much easier and the caddy needs less rinsing.

The humble sandwich

I was on a course today and arrived early in order to help someone with a computer problem. In return for my help he offered to buy me lunch. It felt rude to refuse and besides, even I will admit , it is not very hip to eat last night's leftover tea served out of an old ice cream tub in public. So I accepted the invitation and we went to Marks and Spencer for sandwiches (this was a working lunch).

I noticed that all the sandwiches were packaged in cardboard with a cellulose window made from 100% natural plant material.

Having eaten our sandwiches I folded my sandwich packet flat put it in my bag and suppressed the blush when my colleague commented on my 'strange' behaviour. I explained that I would take the packaging home to compost it.

Composts need a combination of green material, such as kitchen waste and brown material such as paper and cardboard so the sandwich package makes a good contribution to my compost heap or my wormery.

Before putting the packing in my compost caddy I read the recycling information and noticed the website link www.recyle-PlanA.com which gives lots of useful tips about recycling and composting, including how to set up your own office recycling scheme.

Go Bananas

Did you know? All bananas sold in Sainsbury's are now Fairtrade.

It is hardly surprising that they are announcing a 5% increase in banana sales (35 million bananas) since the switch to Fairtrade. Read More

A few times recently I've found myself in other supermarkets and of course they sell Fairtrade bananas too, but more often than not they are in a plastic bag.

I'm not for one minute suggesting that bananas are particularly green, although most seem to be these days especially when you're hungry and you want to buy one to eat now, but they are nice – when they're not green – and so I do buy them. I just like the fact that when I'm in Sainsbury's I don't have to think about whether they are Fairtrade or not as I know they only sell Fairtrade bananas now.

The main thing is though, why do they have to be in a plastic bag? We are going to peel them anyway so it isn't a hygiene thing.

Talking of which, how do you dispose of your banana peel?

I use my banana peel to fertilise my roses. A tip my mother-in-law gave me, when I noticed how perfect her roses looked. Just lay the banana peel on top of the soil around the base of your rose. I guess it is the potassium the bananas like. Takes seconds, costs nothing.