Lately I’ve been having a lot of fun with contacting companies that I like (and don’t like) and asking them how compostable their product is. The results have usually been pretty entertaining. I don’t drink a lot of tea, but when I do, it’s ginger Yogi Tea. They definitely carry a good rep, and they didn’t disappoint here.
I sent them an email asking about their tea bags… What are they made of? Are they compostable? It appears that tea bags normally are, but as of late have been moving over to nylon bags due to higher strength…not compostable. In fact, I wonder if I really want to be dipping nylon in near-boiling water. While heating and burning aren’t the same thing, burning nylon is definitely toxic. Not trying to scare you, but just a thought.
I learned that Yogi Tea uses a manila hemp tea bag which is oxygen bleached…a completely toxin-free process. How many other tea bags are doing that? No idea, but it sounds cool.
Yogi Tea’s only non-compostable component, other than the staple, is the envelope that the bag comes in. As with many food items, a barrier of preservation is needed to keep food protected from oxygen, water, humidity, etc. In this case, the barrier is EVOH (ethyl vinyl alcohol), which keeps the tea preserved for up to two years…keep stuff from coming in, keep stuff from going out. Seems like this papery bag would be fine for normal paper recycling though, no?
Other tips with composting tea bags… I’ve noticed so far that the general consensus is that tea bags stick around for a long time and don’t degrade so quick. If you want to avoid this possibility, cut the top off your tea bag and dump the contents into your compost. Pretty simple.
The commonality that keeps raising itself comes back to you…what are you trying to do with your compost? Grow food? Or merely avoid the trash can and make dirt? Two different avenues, for sure. As you can tell, I’m into the latter as to make it simpler and get people to start a new behavior…there’s really not much left to trash after you segregate the recycling and compost.
Time for some more coffee.
FYI, the tea bag wrapper is not compostable or recyclable. 🙁
This from Yogi Tea in response to my inquiry:
Our current envelopes are not compostable or recyclable due to their protective inner lining. Reason being, this lining is made of EVOH (ethyl vinyl alcohol), which is an excellent barrier to a host of organic and inorganic elements, including oxygen and humidity.
Not all tea bags are the same, luckily.
That’s unfortunate regarding their tea bag’s compostability.
Personally, I don’t mind throwing all tea bags in my compost, as the contents are of course compostable.
I sift/screen my finished compost, and the bags are brought out easily if they didn’t break down.