I am revisiting the subject of this post from May - worms tea bags and tissues - because I have a little more to add.Most people who aspire to live more sustainable lives recycle, reuse or compost as much of their "waste" as they can and after starting on garden waste some end up composting their kitchen waste too. A while ago I became concerned about composting tea bags because I discovered that they are not "pure" paper but contain a percentage of plastic. Not a lot of people know that. Just about all tea bags have a polyester additive in the paper so they can be heat sealed in manufacture. When they are composted they leave behind a faint polyester skeleton which is particularly obvious in wormeries where it can build up over a year or so to make almost impenetrable (for the worms) layers. I haven't seen any other web site that mentions composting (even CAT - Centre for Alternative Technology - the last time I looked) that seems aware of this plastic contamination from tea bags because they all apparently recommend composting them whole. Since I found out, I tear the bag (when cooled) and tip the leaves into the compost and throw the bag into the bin.
I noticed a while ago that Co-op facial tissues, in addition to wood pulp, have a "wet strength additive". Apparently most, if not all, products like this have these additives, which are a form of resin. I phoned up the Co-op's freephone number to find out what this substance does when the tissue is composted and although I didn't find out exactly what it breaks down to, because I never got direct access to their technical guys, their customer service people, specifically Natalie, did say CO2, water and "biomass".
"Tough" kitchen rolls like Bounty A.K.A Plenty presumably contain either more of this "wet strength" additive or a different one. I am investigating whether this type of paper can be composted safely and will post again when I get a firm answer
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