Can I flush used tea leaves down the toilet?

Factual Questions
1

I have a cup with a nice mesh filter in the screw-on top. It lets me steep loose-leaf tea and drink from the same vessel without worrying about inhaling my leaves. The problem is getting the leaves out again, because they like to stick to the sides and bottom of the cup. The easiest way to get them out is by rinsing, but then I can’t throw them out (unless I want to dump a quarter cup of water into my garbage bag daily.

What would be really nice is if I could rinse, swirl around the cup, and dump it all (water and tea leaves) into my toilet. Is there a problem with this? I can’t imagine there is, but I wanted to make sure there aren’t horror stories or some reason I can’t think of.

2

Spread them in your garden, or if you don’t have a garden, throw them out.

3

I’ll second the garden suggestion. My grandmother does that and she’s had a beautiful garden for as long as I’ve known her. (She also knows what each plant needs to do well, and, usually, it’s scientific name)

Unless you’re on a septic tank, tea leaves aren’t going to be a problem. They’re not going to damage the treatment plant, or the environment (after they exit the treatment plant). Just make sure they’re in sufficiiently small bits that there’s no way they could get caught somewhere and start a clog.

Even if you’ve got a septic tank, the only additional consideration is if it’d harm the bacteria in your septic tank which doesn’t seem likely (given that it’s not just safe, but beneficial for a flower garden, which can be pretty fragile).

4

Is there a reason you want to dump them in your toilet, and not just down the sink drain? Wouldn’t that be easier, and less likely to splash toilet water back into the cup? Even without a disposer, the leaves will be so tiny they won’t cause a clog.

5

Regardless whether you are on a septic system or a sewer, don’t ever put anything down the drain other than standard gray water and toilet waste.

No fats, grease, food waste, diapers, etc.

While tea leaves in small quantity might not be a problem, once they hit the pipe and start mixing with other cruft in there, you can get a blockage. Plus your septic tank or sewage treatment plant will thank you.