Celestial Seasons FAQ [1] says they sell 1.6 billion cups of tea per year, so this would work out to about 5 grams per serving, which seems around the right ballpark for the entire tea bag. Maybe their thinking is that without the staples, the tea bags are compostable, so they don't go in a landfill?

[1] http://www.celestialseasonings.com/learn-about-us/faqs

Not all brands, obviously, but don't assume the 'bag' itself is biodegradable.

Anecdotally, certain fancy tea bags survived an 18 month composting cycle, which I had to then pluck out by hand before spreading said compost on my vegie patch.

Be kind to worms!

Most 'biodegradable' plastic is PLA, which will compost but not in home composters, which don't get hot enough.

That number looks about right for "because of this, every one of our teabags is recycled instead of thrown out", which is obviously not true. But it could also be a supply-chain stat, where the landfill mass of those strings and staples is measured from cotton and iron, instead of the finished products.

Yeah it seems overstated. Maybe they mean in terms of raw materials? Like iron ore and extra cotton production... still seems steep.

That manufacturer is in every Walmart in the US. Do not underestimate how much they sale.