Gardeners urged to add common household item to compost - but there's a catch (2025)

Composting is a great way to recycle kitchen waste and turn it into nutrient-rich materials for your garden - but some items like teabags - need to be treated with care

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Garden enthusiasts are being urged to add teabags to their compost heaps this spring - but only after ripping them open. Composting is a brilliant all-year-round activity for your garden, transforming kitchen waste such as potato skins, carrot peelings and banana skins into nutrient-rich compost.

This can supercharge your garden plants, leading to larger, more robust fruits and vegetables and vibrant flowers. Starting a compost pile can be as simple as using a plastic bin, or you could consider more expensive options like wooden composters, multi-opening hot bins or other various chic solutions.

However, if you're on a budget, a basic plastic box or an old bin with a lid will suffice, provided you add some air holes for the plant bacteria to use to break down.

But if you're planning to add teabags to your compost, it's crucial to tear open the bags first and pour the raw tea leaves directly into the compost, reports the Daily Record.

This is due to the fact that many leading teabag brands still incorporate hidden plastic in their products. Most supermarket teabags are constructed using plastic fibres to ensure they seal correctly, but this also means they won't fully decompose in your compost bin.

Instead, they'll leave behind stubborn plastic residue, along with potentially harmful chemicals that can seep into your compost and pollute your soil.

Even with eco-friendly, plant-based teabags - like those from Yorkshire Tea - it's still recommended to tear them open and compost only the tea leaves inside.

To maintain a natural and uncontaminated compost heap, it is advisable to separate the bag itself for individual disposal as it may contain elements resistant to complete decomposition. By adhering to this straightforward process, you can guarantee your compost remains pure and clear of plastic pollutants.

According to Yorkshire Tea: "PLA tea bags are sometimes called 'plastic free', but we've never used that label and WRAP, the people behind the UK Plastics Pact, also advise against it because plant-based plastics are still plastics."

The guidance continues: "You can snip open your used tea bags, compost the tea inside at home, and put the bag itself in your refuse bin. If you don't want to do that, the alternative is to put your tea bag in your refuse bin."

Consumer advice publication Which? provides additional context on this topic: "Tea bags have traditionally been sealed with a plastic called polyproplene, which enables their edges to be heat sealed and stop them falling apart in hot water."

It adds that while minor amounts of the plastic were utilised, they proved detrimental to the composting of the bags. Consequently, because a massive volume of tea bags are used in the UK, this previously led to a substantial accumulation of plastic waste.

To mitigate this issue, the UK Tea and Infusions Association counsels ripping the bags open to deposit the tea leaves in your compost pile. The tea bag itself is then to be separately placed in the trash bin, eventually making its way into the landfill.