Whether its Earl Grey or a strong builders, there’s nothing that screams British culture quite like a good cup of tea. But not all tea bags are created equally. Here are five of the best plastic-free tea options you should be investing in.
It may come as a surprise, but your daily mug of tea (or five...) may actually be having an adverse effect on the environment, with companies opting for plastic glue to seal the bags and others using plastic to create the bags themselves. Sadly, this prevents them from being recyclable or fully biodegradable.
And it’s not just the environment the plastics are doing harm to. A new study reports that plastic-made teabags can release billions of microplastics and nanoparticles into your tea: 1.6 billion microplastics to be exact, which are then consumed as you sip down your hot drink,
Globally, microplastics mean that people are already eating around 5 grams of plastic per week, according to one study from a university in Australia. That’s about the size of a credit card. These microplastics are found in food and drinks, sometimes making their way down the food chain and into, for example, marine life.
Luckily more and more companies are listening, and now there’s a whole host of plastic-free tea bags to choose from. Yorkshire Tea, for example, have ledged to switch from plastic seals to renewable plant-based material by the end of 2019.
Here is a list of tea companies who are thinking about sustainability and are making bags free from plastics:
Clipper Tea
Clipper Tea pride themselves on staying away from anything artificial and are all about reducing the impact they have on the environment. This means their organic teabags aren’t chemically bleached, and they're plastic-free and non-GM. This makes their tea bags are both biodegradable and recyclable. They also come in a load of yummy flavours including green tea, and even white tea.
We Are Tea
You won’t find any plastic here. We Are Tea make sure their whole leaf tea is all ethically sourced from the Ethical Tea Partnership and, in 2013, they changed from using nylon tea bags to 100% biodegradable corn starch teabags. They also use 100% compostable cups too!
Pukka Tea
Pukka teas are all about reducing their carbon footprints through sourcing organic ingredients. Sellings teas in over 49 countries, Pukka use organic cotton, as opposed to polypropylene. And outside of plastic use, they have already dedicated to donating 1% of their turnover to help improve important societal issues, and in 2018 donated £565,000 to environmental causes.
PG Tips
In case fancy teas aren't your thing, PG Tips, the classic and beloved brand, are one of the latest tea companies to ditch the plastic for a more sustainable option. Their famous pyramid shaped tea bags are now made from a plant-based material, and they've already made 1 billion of them.
Teapigs
Teapigs' wide selection of teas and infusions have never contained plastic in the bags. Instead, they are made from cornstarch and the labels are made from paper. Teapigs have thought of everything, even the ink on the labels is vegetable-based, and everything is heat-sealed!
