On Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:44:15 +0100, "Christina Websell"
wrote:


wrote in message
...
Christina Websell wrote:
This explains why I sometimes find thinned down bags in the worm bin
output. Well, now I know to stop throwing them back in the top, which
is what I normally do with anything that isn't "fully digested" yet.

I don't see any reason to start removing staples, though --- I think
they rust away in the worm bin.

I don't have a worm bin but I do put my teabags on my compost heap where
they rot away very well. Might be due to the chicken poo that acts as an
accelerator?

But what brand do you drink, Tina?

Typhoo usually, does this make a difference? Of course not and I appreciate
your humour.


Glengettie bags don't compost well either. Being Welsh, I don't
subscribe to the foreign tradition of tea drinking.... warm the pot,
is it milk or tea must go in the cup first? I don't even own a tea pot
but keep some tea bags handy in case of need. I buy Glengettie because
they at least have bilingual boxes :-)). Tea bag in cup or mug. Add
hot water. Squash about a bit for a few seconds until the water turns
brown. Extract bag and put into food recycling container. Add milk.
Stir. Add sugar if needed. If the brew doesn't look brown enough, add
a drop of gravy browning. Sorted.

Most of my visitors get converted to coffee pretty quickly!

http://www.rivendell.org.uk coming soon

Yes it does, according to the Which article which sparked off this thread. Some brands use non-rotting plastic in the bags.

Christina Websell wrote:
I don't have a worm bin but I do put my teabags on my compost heap where
they rot away very well. Might be due to the chicken poo that acts as an
accelerator?
But what brand do you drink, Tina?
Typhoo usually, does this make a difference? Of course not and I appreciate
your humour.

Umm, since the whole thread was about one brand (was it Typhoo? I forget
now!) using polypropylene in the bags, then yes, it is kind of relevant.
Sorry, I wasn't actually trying to be flippant this time. :-(

On 2010-07-28, Roy Bailey wrote:

In article , Ian B
writes

[snipped]

I started off putting my teabags in the compost- only to have to pick them
out again when it came to using it. I don't know whether it's all brands,
but PG Tips seem to be very resilient.

You should use proper teabags, like Taylor's Yorkshire tea.

PG Tips is for chimps!


I checked the article again. It specifically lists Clipper, PG Tips,
Tetley, Twinings, and Typhoo as using polypropylene, and Jacksons of
Piccadilly as being fully biodegradable.

Apart than that, it says folded & stapled bags are more likely to
break down in the compost.

I'm still curious about the advice to remove the staples. I remove
the tags from teabags but leave the strings and staples (this applies
mainly to fruity and herbal tea in our house), and I've never noticed
the staples in the output, or had any complaints from the worms. ;-)

In message , Adam Funk
writes
On 2010-07-28, Roy Bailey wrote:

In article , Ian B
writes

[snipped]

I started off putting my teabags in the compost- only to have to pick them
out again when it came to using it. I don't know whether it's all brands,
but PG Tips seem to be very resilient.

You should use proper teabags, like Taylor's Yorkshire tea.

PG Tips is for chimps!


I checked the article again. It specifically lists Clipper, PG Tips,
Tetley, Twinings, and Typhoo as using polypropylene, and Jacksons of
Piccadilly as being fully biodegradable.

Apart than that, it says folded & stapled bags are more likely to
break down in the compost.

I'm still curious about the advice to remove the staples. I remove
the tags from teabags but leave the strings and staples (this applies
mainly to fruity and herbal tea in our house), and I've never noticed
the staples in the output, or had any complaints from the worms. ;-)


I suspect it's a saftey thing, just in case a staples doesn't rust way
and someone was to spike their hand on it or something.
--
Chris French

Adam Funk wrote:
I checked the article again. It specifically lists Clipper, PG Tips,
Tetley, Twinings, and Typhoo as using polypropylene, and Jacksons of
Piccadilly as being fully biodegradable.

Oh that's odd - we tend to have Clipper and haven't noticed a problem.

On 2010-07-30, wrote:

Adam Funk wrote:
I checked the article again. It specifically lists Clipper, PG Tips,
Tetley, Twinings, and Typhoo as using polypropylene, and Jacksons of
Piccadilly as being fully biodegradable.

Oh that's odd - we tend to have Clipper and haven't noticed a problem.

I'm not sure what we have, but I'm just going to keep throwing them
in. I think it's easier to pick out the few teabag "skeletons" I find
in the output than to rip the freshly used teabags open for the input.

"echinosum" wrote in message
...

'Adam Funk[_3_ Wrote:
;895615']According to the latest issue of _Which?_, some of the main
brands of
tea use polypropylene in the bags. The article says to "look out for
stitched bags with a tag (remove any staples before chucking them on
your compost heap)".
I think the best solution would be to buy something compostable. If
enough people did this, they would stop.

It always surprises me in this famously tea-drinking country how
incredibly few people seem to care very much about what they are
drinking as tea. You come many people who know intricate details about
wine or coffee, but very rarely tea. And yet tea is so cheap, when
reckoned per cup, that spending quite a bit more on good tea still works
out cheaper than ordinary coffee. Unfortunately an awful lot of what is
sold as quality tea, eg famous brands, is some not-very-good stuff with
fancy packaging. And yet teas, like wine, vary hugely from one
provenance to another, and according to when in the year they were
picked. And there are good years and bad years, just like wine (2009 was
a disaster in India, for example, so there is very little good tea to be
had just now. Hopefully in a few months things will pick up.) If just a
few people took this interest, and tea had quality labelling systems
like other things from cheese to pork pies, it could be so much better.




I like my tea strong and what bugs me is that a lot of people think strong
tea is what you get if you only put a tiny amount of milk in.

mark

wrote in message
...
Christina Websell wrote:
I don't have a worm bin but I do put my teabags on my compost heap
where
they rot away very well. Might be due to the chicken poo that acts as
an
accelerator?
But what brand do you drink, Tina?
Typhoo usually, does this make a difference? Of course not and I
appreciate
your humour.

Umm, since the whole thread was about one brand (was it Typhoo? I forget
now!) using polypropylene in the bags, then yes, it is kind of relevant.
Sorry, I wasn't actually trying to be flippant this time. :-(

With chicken poo on the compost heap, added regularly nothing I add to it,
including Typhoo tea bags, refuses to rot down ;-)

Christina Websell wrote:
With chicken poo on the compost heap, added regularly nothing I add to it,
including Typhoo tea bags, refuses to rot down ;-)

A-ha, this could explain why our Clipper teabags aren't presenting a
problem despite apparently having the same issue. More chicken poo all
round is the order of the day!

wrote in message
...
Christina Websell wrote:
With chicken poo on the compost heap, added regularly nothing I add to
it,
including Typhoo tea bags, refuses to rot down ;-)

A-ha, this could explain why our Clipper teabags aren't presenting a
problem despite apparently having the same issue. More chicken poo all
round is the order of the day!

Yep! Will swap chicken poo for courgettes ;-)

Christina Websell wrote:
With chicken poo on the compost heap, added regularly nothing I add to
it, including Typhoo tea bags, refuses to rot down ;-)

A-ha, this could explain why our Clipper teabags aren't presenting a
problem despite apparently having the same issue. More chicken poo all
round is the order of the day!

Yep! Will swap chicken poo for courgettes ;-)

Or we could join forces and feed the chicken poo to the courgette plants and
get gazillions of courgettes!

Hi There
I am new to worm farming and i didnt know where to start but just wanted to give it a go. So thought i would have a search around the internet to see what info was available and couldnt really find much! However i did find a really great book to download which was incredibly informative and really easy to read. Now I am so excited as i have a better understanding as a complete novice and i highly recommend it to anyone starting out.
I found it under this website: Beginners Guide to Starting a Worm Farm

would appreciate any further advice from anyone.

Allotment Lady