Using Tea Bags – Recycling Tips for Home and Garden use.

There are so many different ways to reuse a teabag (other than obviously making another cup of tea). Here is my list of 15 ingenious ways for using tea bags in the home and garden. 

Tea bags are not just for tea! You may not be English and have a cup of tea at various times throughout the day but many people do drink tea quite often. My daughter Jess spent a semester studying in the UK and she drinks tea all the time now.  But don’t throw those used tea bags away!

Gardening tip of the week.  Recycle used tea bags.

Grab a cup of tea (and don’t forget to use my Music Sheet Tea Coasters) and check out these ideas!

Tips for Using Tea bags in the Garden

Here are some favorite gardening recycling tips for tea bags that you can incorporate into your tea drinking ritual.

Cleaning Plants

Wet, used tea bags are great for cleaning the leaves of household plants. Since the plants absorb the tea through the leaves, they get a real treat as well.

Enriching garden soil

Tea bags do wonders for the garden. They enrich the soil by increasing nitrogen levels, and also give earthworms (fertilizers) something yummy to eat.  Just be sure to remove the tags first. They take a long time to break down and might be plastic coated.

Adding to a compost pile

Add tea bags to a compost pile.  This reduces garbage in general and adds nutrients to a compost pile.  Remove the tags if they have staples in them.

Making weed tea

If you don’t have a compost pile,  just steep a tea bag in water with some garden weeds until the water slightly changes color, and then use the liquid to water your plants. See other DIY garden fertilizer ideas here.

Trench Composting

You could even just bury the tea bag outside directly in the garden to add nutrients to the soil.  Don’t worry-the tea bag will decompose.

Note:  Just be sure to remove the staple and tag it if has one.  We don’t want that in the compost or soil next year!

Using tea bags in the home

Don’t have a garden?  There are still lots of great uses for used tea bags:

Eye compress

Soothe your tired eyes with a tea bag compress.  Soak them in cold water first.  The tea will rejuvenate your face, removing the redness and puffiness after a while.

Meat Flavoring

Flavor tough meat!   use tea bags (or even leftover tea) to marinade your meat. The sweetness of the drink will add a savory taste to your dish and tenderize it too.

Healing canker sores

Help with a canker sore.  The tea’s healing properties will soothe the pain and make the sore go away faster. This method also helps when you have a pulled tooth by limiting the bleeding.

What other uses have you found for your tea bags?

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More Tips for using teabags from readers of the blog:  (thanks for your submissions!)

Sunburn relief

Patti says:  Strong tea is wonderful for sunburn. I burn very easily and have used tea all of my life.

and Socialgal52 says:  Lay wet tea bags on a sunburn to draw out the burn.

Stop bleeding

Edna Dabbs says:  When you have cut use a wet tea bag to stop the bleeding.

For roses and Vegetables

Martha says:  I keep an empty ice cream bucket in my freezer and empty the used coffee grounds every morning. Once it is full, I put it outside to thaw and then fill with water and pour the grounds over my roses and vegetables. Been doing this for 35 yrs. No mold. Tea bags will do the same.

Healing Nipples from breastfeeding

Jacki Tigg Mathis says:  When I was just beginning to breast feed my babies, I was very sore and the skin was broken on the nipples, I used warm tea bags and placed them over them for a while, I healed up in no time at all.

Faux Suntan

Lynda says:  Rubbing a wet teabag over legs and arm will give you an instant light suntan (you might need more than one) or pouring strong tea into your bath water will do the same.

Foot odor

Dawn says:  If you have a stinky foot odor problem ,soaking your feet in tea water helps ,Thank You Dr. Oz !

Elizabeth also says: After using a tea bag, I let it dry, and I put the tea bag inside my shoes in the closet and it keeps free from odor and also keep the leather free from molds.

Relief from Poison Ivy

David W. says that due to a compromised immune system, he is susceptible to rashes of the ‘poison’ variety when he inadvertantly scratches an area on the surface. He has found that a teabag offers some relief.

Thanks to my readers for the great tips for using tea bags in the home and garden! If you have a tip be sure to add it in the comments below so that I can include it (with a shout out to you) in the post.

Would you like a reminder of this post for using tea bags around the home? Just pin this image to one of your household tips boards on Pinterest so that you can easily find it later.

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