Worms will eat anything that was once living, Leftover vegetable scraps, fruit and vegetable peelings. Tea leaves / bags and coffee grounds.
Tea Bags: Yes! The tea bags will start to break down in the worm bin, and the worms will finish off the contents. The string and paper tab might not break down as quickly. You can rip them off before saving a tea bag.
Tea leaves, even tea bags and coffee filters, are suitable. Eggshells can go in as they are. I have found as many as 50 worms curled up in one eggshell.
Special instructions: Drain any excess liquid down the sink before composting filters and tea bags. Remove any staples from the tea bag before composting. Put nylon and other fabric-based tea bags into the garbage (tea leaves can be separated out for the compost).
After brewing, the tea leaves still contain nutrients, including nitrogen. By burying your tea bags in the garden, you are providing a natural fertilizer for plants. Your plants grow faster and stay healthy in the face of climate change and pests.
When you next make a cup of tea don't throw away the old bag because it has many uses that you might not know about. Black tea contains tannic acid and theobromine which removes heat from sunburn so rubbing cold tea water on sore skin will soothe pain. Old tea bags can also be used to flavour rice or pasta.
Tea bags suitable for composting may take anywhere from 3 to 6 months to decompose, and the speed depends on your soil's particular composition, along with seasonal temperature and how deep your tea bag is buried.
Can you compost Twinings tea bags? No. Twinings teabags recently started using plant-based plastic (PLA). Unfortunately, this type of material is only biodegradable by industrial composting services.
Pest Deterrent: Pre-steeped bags are a great way to rid your garden of slugs, bugs, and rodents: just sprinkle the wet or dry leaves directly onto the soil. According to Tip Hero, the caffeine also deters pests from eating, nibbling, or peeing on your garden turf.
Items you cannot compost in a worm bin:
Onions and garlic (a good rule of thumb is if it makes you smell, it makes your worm bin smell) Meat, fats, grease, bones or oils (no butter, lard, stocks, soups, etc) Plastics and plastic coated paper (like glossy magazines)
Avoid feeding the worms large quantities of meat, citrus, onions and dairy foods. Some processed food also contains preservatives, which discourage the worms from eating it. These foods won't harm your worms, but they will avoid them and those scraps will break down and rot in the bin.
Banana peels are an excellent worm food.
Worms love to eat coffee grounds, and that's great news for your garden. Add coffee grounds to your compost pile to help attract worms, which help speed up the process of turning food scraps into compost. You can also add coffee grounds directly to the soil, but you'll have to be careful not to overdo it.
Yes, in moderation, bread, and in fact, all grain based foods, are worthy of your worms' processing power. Stale bread remains just as full of nutrients and building blocks for worm growth as the fresh stuff.
Your worm tea can be diluted up to a 10 – 1 ratio with rain or pond water. Tap water is also okay if you de-gas the chlorine first. Full strength or anywhere in between is also okay.
4. Are your teas made with plastic materials? None of our teabags have used nylon plastics or polyethylene terephthalate plastics (PET). The remainder of our tagged teabags, envelopes and inner pouch are currently transitioning to biodegradable plant based PLA material.
Even organic tea bags have been known to include a small amount of polypropylene, the plastic that helps with the sealing and tying of the bag. This compound is unable to break down, and small particles will remain in even commercial 'green waste' composting.
Overcoming the concern about salmonella bacteria from the eggs in your compost is less challenging when armed with knowledge. Let's just start out by saying: putting egg shells in your compost is okay; they are a rich source of calcium and other essential nutrients that plants need.
Compost tea: The brewing process
The brewing process pulls lots more healthy microbes from the compost. Brew on a warm day, with water that's about 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Set the brewer in a shady spot — strong sunlight can kill microbes.
Can I place used paper towels, napkins, and tissue in my compost cart? Yes, absolutely. These items can be composted even if they are wet or stained with food, vegetable oil, or grease.
Banana peels are a great ingredient for your compost or worm farm, adding lots of nutrients to the organic recycling process.
Tea is relatively forgiving, and rarely spoils as long as it's stored properly. Old tea may simply be less flavorful and fresh than new tea, and will brew up a weaker cup with a stale flavor. In this sense, tea doesn't actually have an “expiration date” after which it will be unsafe to drink.
When do tea leaves and tea bags “expire”? As mentioned, tea bags do not expire. Neither does loose leaf tea. Dry tea leaves and bags are typically good for a whopping two years before quality starts rolling down a hill.
Overall, to help prevent greenhouse gas emissions from tea bags rotting in landfill, then the best thing to do is place tea bags in your food or garden waste collection, if you have one in your area.