Can you Reuse Tea Bags? In More Ways Than One

Are you someone who loves using tea bags for their convenience? Have you ever stopped to rethink your decision to use tea bags just once and then throwing them away? Well, as an environmentally conscious person, I certainly have.
Most commercial tea bags are made from 25 per cent plastic, which doesn’t make them exactly environment-friendly. The plastic in tea bags may not pose a major threat to the environment, but it does add to the tonnes of the plastic waste tormenting our planet.

While the use of tea bags cannot be eliminated completely, I believe we can use and reuse them sustainably to make use of all the goodness that they have to offer. Even after brewing, tea bags and loose leaf tea have numerous uses and benefits for our homes.

Here’s a List of Certain Ways We Can Reuse Our Tea Bags.

6 Ways to Reuse Your Tea Bags

1. Feed your plants

You can use your used tea bags as food for your plants. Basically, what I like to do is, open used tea bags and empty the components into the plant pot, mixing it with the soil. The components, which are tea leaves, are biodegradable. They will not only provide nourish the soil but also turn into compost and help your plants grow faster.

2. Use them for Cooking

I am a huge fan of experimenting while cooking. And I know for a fact that brewed tea and tea leaves can be used in various cooking and baking recipes. So with used tea bags, you can use the components to create fantastically tasting recipes like tea-infused cookies, soups, risottos, pasta and more. With all the varying flavours in tea, the possibility of new tastes is endless.

3. Get rid of Dark Circles

Even after the brewing process, tea leaves in used tea bags are rich in antioxidants. Put the used tea bags in the fridge to cool them down. Once they are cold, you can put them on your eyes to reduce puffiness, dark circles and under-eye bags. Cold used tea bags can be used to effectively soothe your eyes and even reduce inflammation.

4. Take a Tea Bath

Why buy expensive bath bombs, when you can use tea bags with bomb flavours for an invigorating bathing experience. You can drop some used tea bags in your bathtub filled with warm water. Your bathing experience will not only be relaxing but also skin soothing and sweet-smelling. The best choices for a tea bath are chamomile tea, rose green tea and tulsi green tea.

5. Say Goodbye to Foul Odours

Used tea bags can help you get rid of foul odours in your refrigerator. Dry your used tea bags and put them in the refrigerator. The dried tea bags will absorb all repellent smells from the fridge. I also use dried tea bags to absorb stinky smells from my gym shoes. This way, you can avoid mixing of smells in the refrigerator as well.

6. Clean your Windows Spotless

Who needs Colin when you can use a used tea bag for spotless windows? Just rub the damp tea bags on the glass surface like mirrors and windows and wipe with a clean cloth. The tea bag’s remnant will help get rid of dirt, grime and fingerprints without much effort.

After going through all the above things that tea bags can do for you, I’m sure you can find some of them to be useful in your daily life. This way you can not only make the best out of your tea bags but also you live a sustainable lifestyle. If you shop smart—and use your tea bags wisely then they can better your life in many ways without hurting the planet in the process.

Abhishek Dixit

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View Comments

Alice Mecklenburg says:

September 20, 2019 at 6:10 PM

Fortunately, we now have regular compost trash collections where I live so I no longer feel as guilty about discarding lots of used tea. Ditching tea bags for loose leaf is a win-win too because I now enjoy my tea more and it doesn't require as much packaging. By the way, I love the idea of using the finished leaves to enrich plant soil because I have a ton of indoor plants and they all require a LOT of TLC!