BRITS wanting to get their garden looking fresh ahead of summer can use a simple kitchen staple to help – but not in the conventional way.
Traditionally, gardeners are told to put teabags in their garden to boost garden plants.
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Along with other kitchen scraps like potato peel, carrot off-cuts, and banana peels, the teabags help create a rich, nutritious compost that leads to much bigger and stronger fruit and vegetables.
However, gardeners are now being urged to make sure they rip up their teabags before putting them in the garden, pouring in the leaves directly.
This is because many of the top branded teabags sold today actually contain plastic.
Many branded teabags sold in UK supermarkets use plastic, which means they will never break down in your compost and will leave a plastic residue behind that will contaminate the compost with plastic chemicals.
This also includes plant based teabags, such as those used by Yorkshire Tea.
All teabags should be ripped open, and the bag disposed of separately and not in the compost bin.
Yorkshire Tea has advised: “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.
“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 magazine Which? explains: “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.”
“Small amounts were used, but it prevented them being composted and, due to the enormous amount of tea bags used in the UK, it generated a large amount of plastic waste.”
“The advice from the UK Tea & Infusions Association is to rip open the bags before placing the used tea leaves on your compost heap and dispose of the teabag paper separately in your bin where it will go into landfill.”
There are several benefits of putting tea leaves in your compost, as Chris at Climbing Wild Gardeners explains.
Chris told the northernecho.co.uk: “Tea bags contain beneficial compounds that improve soil structure, retain moisture, and provide plants with essential nutrients.”
“Burying used tea bags just beneath the soil’s surface helps retain moisture and supports healthy root growth.”
He added: “They also help reduce fungal infections, leading to a greener and healthier lawn.”
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