Tea Bags
Recyclable?
Blue Bins & Chutes
Other Recycling
Recommended
Trash
Most tea bags are made with plastic. Yes sad but true.
Yes some brands have gone back to paper for tea bags… but even then you cannot recycle paper that is contaminated with food waste.
General Waste
Alternative
Other
It is possible to compost the tea, but not usually the bag itself.
Remove the tea from the bag and throw it into whatever composting system you have. Otherwise hunt down a local composting alternative.
Compost Collaborations by Project Black Gold
Community Gardens
Info & Insights
Most major brands of tea use food-grade plastic for the bags. Such tea bags are not biodegradable. If you prefer tea bags made of paper, check online for a list of plastic-free teas available locally.
Tea is, of course, biodegradable. But plastic is not. So if you have a composting system and you throw the entire tea bag in there, in a few months you will find a perfectly intact, but empty, tea bag. Fun!
You can achieve the same effect in a garden pot with soil but it might take a bit longer depending how active your soil is.
