I am a green tea girl with Sencha,a Japanese tea, my preferred choice. Husband is a black tea drinker and flits between the 3 Yorkshire Tea brands( red, purple and gold coloured packs of 100 tea bags). With regard to disposal of tea bags we put them into our compost bins.
Handy tip. Put them in a small plastic bag and take them with you when you walk the dog. Everyone thinks you're a responsible dog owner, and saves having to pick up the poo.
Must admit that when supply from Japan looked dicey a couple of months ago I did re-use them. Good for a second cup but not too good for a third!
i found that woodlice lived in my used t bags in compost heep.then i found out about the plastic in them.now i dry them compost the tea and re cycle the bag!! crazy days!!
Thanks. Handed this over to my husband who does the garden composting and worked in the plastics industry all his working life. He said the article below is indicative of where the industry is heading with regard to a plastic free tea bag. Within the article there is a link to how Sheffield University has assisted in these efforts. https://www.yorkshiretea.co.uk/our-packaging Click on Plastics in Teabags - Progress report.
Didn't know about the plastic. We have been Yorkshire Tea drinkers for a long time but our faith waned a little bit recently because in the USA where we are presently isolated because of the pandemic and not relishing flying to the U.K., our teabags go down the sink into the ."Insinkerator" which churns up food waste before it goes to the drain. We don't save anything in the USA. Yorkshire Tea started putting labels and a bit of string on each teabag which is fastened by a metal staple on the boxes sold in our supermarket. So I was having to remove this staple before putting it down the sink, a fiddley process especially if it was still hot. Fortunately they have reverted back over here to teabags with no label, string or staple.