Against the law to compost tea bags!
Hanging tea bags
|
In a recent article, I talked of how the council in Bristol, UK wanted to pass a by-law making it illegal to forage for blackberries and other hedgerow delights. This got me thinking about how councils can make things difficult for homesteaders, gardeners and the members of the public who are trying to live a greener lifestyle. |
Back in 2005, I had an allotment in Birmingham, UK, and the allotment association informed that every plot holder that we were no longer allowed to compost tea-bags on our plot. That’s right, it was no against the rules to make a cuppa and compost the tea-bag.
The logic behind this came from an EU rule that tried to reduce the spread of viruses from milk infected with foot and mouth. They feared that a tea bag might absorb some infected milk from our tea (Why not ban the sale of infected milk?), the decomposing tea-bag would then mutate and develop the viruses in the warm composting conditions, before eventually being dug into the soil where carrots and peas would absorb the foot and mouth virus and potentially infect the plot holder. This is the very same person who drank the cuppa tea with the infected milk in the first instance.
The logic behind this came from an EU rule that tried to reduce the spread of viruses from milk infected with foot and mouth. They feared that a tea bag might absorb some infected milk from our tea (Why not ban the sale of infected milk?), the decomposing tea-bag would then mutate and develop the viruses in the warm composting conditions, before eventually being dug into the soil where carrots and peas would absorb the foot and mouth virus and potentially infect the plot holder. This is the very same person who drank the cuppa tea with the infected milk in the first instance.
|
|
|
The allotment association was not the only people to take this EU law and cause uproar with compost makers. Cardiff City Council carried out an area wide ban on people composting their used tea-bags causing a lot of people to boycott a recently established recycling scheme that they had established a year earlier.
A spokeswoman for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said “You can't guarantee that the teabag hasn't come into contact with an animal product, namely milk, you can't technically put it in."
Fortunately, tea-bags are now recyclable and since 2005 Cardiff City Council have taken great steps forward with the things that they can recycle.
A spokeswoman for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said “You can't guarantee that the teabag hasn't come into contact with an animal product, namely milk, you can't technically put it in."
Fortunately, tea-bags are now recyclable and since 2005 Cardiff City Council have taken great steps forward with the things that they can recycle.
