For the Dutch-speaking people here: I posted a story on tea on scilogs!
It tells the story how I had to buy 280 bags of tea at the local supermarket to participate in the Tea Bag Index, a cheap and elegant solution to measure decomposition rates on a global scale, and thus improve our knowledge of climate change.
You may have to translate it! Is this about recycling tea bags or reusing for a good cause!
It is about using them to study soil decomposition, we put them in the soil, wait several months and dig them back up. By measuring how much weight they lost, we know how active the soil and the tiny living things in the soil are in breaking the stuff down, a very important indicator of ecosystem processes!
Ah, that’s good as I dig mine into the soil with other vegetable waste and it does decompose quickly. Perhaps I should record how long. I never see as many earthworms here as I do in the UK. There are a few.
If you wanna record how long, you are very welcome to participate :). Here is a link to how it works: http://www.decolab.org/tbi/protocol.html . Of course, it is not just throwing used bags out to decompose, but it is a fun little sciency project 🙂
Thanks, I dig my vegetable waste into the earth and then cover it up with more earth and some roof tiles. I then use the patch later for growing vegetables. I hope it’s enriching the earth! Will look it trying to join the project.