The Teabags With out Plastic In The UK In 2024

Must know which teabags with out plastic exist inside the UK in 2024? Look no extra – I’ve rounded up probably the greatest eco-friendly and sustainable plastic-free tea baggage available on the market correct now. I’ve moreover shared the teabags with plastic, that may help you avoid stunning plastic in your drinks.

Once more in 2017, I wrote regarding the gorgeous hidden plastic in teabags. Teabags that many individuals have been composting in our gardens or by our kerbside meals waste pickup. That put up had such an have an effect on as many people found for the first time that teabags embody plastic, alongside quite a few completely different gorgeous devices that embody plastic.

Since then, I’ve been sustaining tabs to see the place the tea enterprise is at current at in reducing plastic from the nation’s favourite drink.

As such, I’ve appeared into over 20 teabag producers inside the UK, to see what teabags with out plastic might be discovered. I’ve moreover appeared into how best to eliminate the bags if you’re completed.

Why Do Teabags Embody Plastic?

You is prone to be questioning why there is a need for plastic to be current in teabags. Successfully, plastic (polypropylene to be precise) is added to the paper teabag to help heat seal them all through manufacture. 

Heat sealing the bags like which suggests the teabags gained’t come open inside the area, or your cup. It moreover implies that these tea baggage aren’t 100% biodegradable. It’s a draw back in that these tea baggage you could be composting are leaving bits of microplastic inside the soil.

What Is Microplastic?

Microplastic is a big draw back, that is nonetheless being understood by scientists presently. Microplastics are tiny objects of plastic, decrease than 5 mm prolonged.

What everyone knows is that microplastics are current in the soil, in the ocean, in our consuming water, inside fish and completely different animals we eat, and even in individuals. When microplastics are inside the meals we eat and the water we drink, this suggests we’re ingesting plastic, and the long-term outcomes of this are at current unknown.

Microplastic comes from a variety of sources. It may derive from greater plastic particles that has degraded into smaller and smaller objects. However, it moreover comes from teabags which had been heat-sealed with plastic, that we have got unwittingly composted.

How so much harm can a teabag do, you can be questioning? Successfully, one teabag alone will do little or no harm. However, when you concentrate on that inside the UK alone we drink higher than 60 billion cups of tea a yr, then it’s a number of teabags and a whole lot further microplastic.

The good news is that since 2017 tea producers have started to remove polypropylene from their teabags.

Teabag Terminology

Sooner than we dive in, let me get you in management on quite a few the terminologies spherical teabags.

Types of Teabags

First off, you’ll see some dialogue spherical kinds of teabags. Here is a visual info to the kinds of teabags referred to on this info.

What About PLA Teabags?

On this info to teabags with out plastic, you’ll see a number of dialogue spherical PLA. PLA stands for Polylactic Acid. PLA teabags are technically not plastic-free, as they’re produced from plant-based plastics. It is also called a bio-plastic. This merely means the plastic would not come from a fossil fuel-based provide.

There are some factors spherical PLA. Firstly, typically the plant supplies used to provide PLA may very well be sourced from genetically modified (GM) crops.

Secondly, PLA tea baggage aren’t home-compostable. It’s because of this truth essential to eliminate them appropriately. In case your native council collects your meals waste or yard waste bin for industrial composting, they could compost shortly. However, in case your council would not purchase your meals waste, then these teabags perform no in any other case than customary oil-based plastic tea baggage.

Do you have to don’t have entry to council meals waste collections, then to eliminate PLA teabags it is best to tear open the bag to help you to compost the tea leaves in your yard. Then put the teabag in collectively along with your widespread waste.

If you happen to want to know further, do be taught my info on what’s PLA and is it biodegradable for a further detailed deep dive.

I don’t assume PLA is a perfect reply. Like many parts of sustainability, there are on a regular basis compromises. However, apart from switching to loose-leaf tea en masse, I don’t assume there is a good reply that may moreover make tea an moderately priced daily staple.

The Plastic-Free Teabags In 2024

Proper right here is the current situation plastic-free tea bag situation correct now inside the UK (updated October 2024), with notes on one of the simplest ways to dispose of each mannequin’s teabags, and if the mannequin provides loose-leaf tea.

Aldi

Place in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

Aldi’s teabags in the meanwhile are plastic-free. In June 2021, Aldi confirmed it was eradicating single-use plastic from its own-brand differ of teabags. We’re pleased to see that this has now rolled out all through the nation. Now all of Aldi’s private mannequin tea – along with decaffeinated, and fruit and pure infusions are produced from PLA – so are industrially compostable.

Asda

Place in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

In October 2022 Asda launched that every one in all its private mannequin teabags – along with the Merely Requirements and Extra Explicit ranges – shall be produced from industrially compostable PLA. Asda says “Tea is a staple in most purchaser’s households so for us to make a change which could make such a distinction is a big second for us.”

Hen & Combine Tea

Place in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

Brighton-based Hen & Combine sells its hand-blended teas in PLA teabags. Or if you happen to want to avoid PLA you can retailer for loose-leaf tea. Alongside its customary black teas, the first house the place Hen & Combine excels is in its distinctive tea blends. Assume Rhubarb & Custard, or Chocolate Digestive flavoured tea for one factor barely completely completely different.

Brew Tea

Place in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

Along with its tasty loose-leaf tea selection, Brew Tea swapped over to PLA teabags in September 2017. Brew Tea then moved over to plastic-free packaging in 2018. Black tea is Brew Tea’s speciality, however it does carry a small differ of fruit and pure teas.

Clipper

Place in your meals waste bin | String and tag teabags residence compostable

Once more in 2017, people have been most shocked by the reality that Clipper’s unbleached pure teabags contained plastic. Due to consumer demand, Clipper took movement, and switched its pillow teabags to a plant-based PLA quite a few years prior to now, sourced from non-GM plant supplies.

Co-Op Private Mannequin 99

Place in your meals waste bin

Due to consumer stress, The Co-Op switched its own-brand Fairtrade 99 tea over to PLA teabags in 2018.

Eteaket

Place in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

Edinburgh-based Eteaket primarily sells loose-leaf tea. That’s packaged in residence compostable Natureflex™ baggage and cardboard caddies. Its tea is not going to be essentially the most value efficient. However, if you already have a caddy, then their loose-leaf tea will also be obtainable in 100% plastic-free refill baggage, which are barely cheaper.

Whereas its differ of teabags is small, all Eteakat tea baggage are produced from PLA. These are packed into residence compostable Natureflex™ baggage, and recyclable cardboard cartons for a smaller carbon footprint.

Good & Appropriate

Place in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

Good & Appropriate’s differ of award-winning teas – from its black teas to its differ of pure infusions – can be found in PLA teabags. If you happen to want to avoid PLA, you can also retailer for a wide range of tasty loose-leaf teas.

Hampstead Tea

Home compostable or can go in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

Hampstead Tea has a protracted historic previous of sustainability. It was the first tea producer to introduce stitched teabags fairly than heat-sealed teabags. As such, its teabags have on a regular basis been home-compostable.

Pretty than resting on its laurels, Hampstead Tea has taken large steps in relation to the environment. Consequently, the overwhelming majority of its merchandise are plastic-free (apart from its Earl Grey and Inexperienced Tea with Jasmine tea bag envelopes).

Lidl

Place in your meals waste bin

Lidl lastly launched in August 2023 that it may very well be switching from plastic tea baggage to compostable ones. Lidl said that its new compostable tea baggage would land in retailer over the approaching months whereas present stock step-by-step sells by way of. I would take into consideration by March 2024 that it may have purchased its non-compostable stock – nevertheless do confirm the sphere earlier than you buy.

Marks & Spencer

Place in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

Marks & Spencer quietly switched its teabags over to PLA in 2023, with little or no fanfare. I imagine it’s on account of M&S issued a press launch once more in 2018, saying that it was taking a “razor-sharp check out how we use plastics” and that “we’re taking plastics out of all 450 million teabags we promote“.

Even though it took six years, I am genuinely pleased to see that M&S’s teas in the meanwhile are compostable.

Morrisons

Place in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

One different straggler, I’m pleased to lastly report that Morrisons own-brand tea is now plastic-free. Morrisons says they purchased 331 million plastic tea baggage a yr, so this generally is a good step forward.

Neal’s Yard

Home compostable or can go in your meals waste bin

Neal’s Yard 100% pure and eco-friendly tea baggage are FairWild™ licensed. That may be a international customary that helps the sustainable use of wild-harvested elements. It moreover ensures a great deal all alongside the supply chain.

Neal’s Yard PLA-free teabags are produced from pure abaca (a plant from the banana family) and are oxygen-bleached. This system is chlorine-free and kind to the environment. As such these plastic-free teabags can go straight into your property composter.

Nemi

Place in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

Nemi is a specialist London-based tea agency that offers a variety of tea blends, every as unfastened tea and teabags. Along with selling great-tasting tea, Nemi gives employment to refugees to supply them native work experience and job readiness experience to enter the UK workforce and to help them mix into broader society.

All of Nemi’s teabags are produced from PLA. Moreover, its packaging is compostable, and its teas are pure, fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance licensed. The packaging is pretty funky too.

PG Concepts

Place in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

PG Concepts made the change to PLA a number of years prior to now due to consumer stress. Now its complete differ may very well be industrially composted by your meals waste bin.

Pukka

Home compostable or can go in your meals waste bin

Pukka makes pure and fairly sourced pure teas. Its string and tag teabags have on a regular basis been plastic and PLA-free. However, each specific individual bag used to return wrapped in an unrecyclable plastic-lined envelope. The good news is that Pukka has taken its environmental obligations critically, and now makes use of extensively recyclable envelopes. 

Roqberry

Place in your meals waste bin

Roqberry’s flavourful fruit and pure infusions can be found in PLA plastic-based pyramids. From banana-flavoured tea to blueberry, these distinctive tea blends tread calmly on the planet.

Sainsbury’s

Place in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

I added Sainsbury’s to this plastic-free teabag itemizing in August 2021. After info that from summer season season 2021 Sainsbury’s own-brand teabags shall be plastic-free, as part of its ongoing dedication to halve plastic packaging by 2025, this lastly rolled out in-store in August 2021.

The model new tea baggage are produced from PLA and are industrially compostable. What I moreover like is that the packaging is completely plastic-free too. The sphere isn’t wrapped in plastic, and neither is there a plastic foil bag contained within the area. Accessible plastic-free tea for the win!

Suki Tea

Place in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

Based in Belfast, Suki Tea ethically sources and blends loose-leaf teas, pure infusions and fruit blends from all world wide. Suki Tea is best recognized for its tasty loose-leaf tea, nonetheless, it does have a selection of PLA-based pyramid teabags.

T2

Place in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

Australian mannequin T2 reached the UK in 2014 and has pretty just some Extreme St retailers dotted throughout the UK. I would say T2 is possibly best recognized for its loose-leaf tea selection. However, its differ of pyramid teabags is produced from PLA for a further sustainable cup of tea.

Teapigs

Place in your meals waste bin

Sustainable tea stalwarts Teapigs have on a regular basis made teabags with out fossil fuel-based plastic – its tasty tea pyramids have on a regular basis been PLA-based. However, Teapigs didn’t stop there. Various years prior to now the mannequin moreover switched the plastic inside bag to a home compostable bag. Excessive plastic-free marks!

Simply recently a reader educated me that Teapigs is owned by Tata. It’s a massive industrial conglomerate that owns many producers – along with Starbucks – which is disappointing to hearken to.

Tesco

Place in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

Tesco lastly transformed to plastic-free teabags in 2023. This suggests all of Tesco’s own-brand black teas, pure teas and speciality teas shall be compostable. Plus, in a daring dedication, all the billion tea baggage purchased by Tesco – own-brand and branded – are compostable by way of council meals waste collections. 

Tick Tock Tea

Place in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

Tick Tock’s differ of naturally decaffeinated rooibos teas is available on the market in every PLA teabags and in loose-leaf codecs. Packaging-wise, the inner pouch of its Chilly Brew Rooibos tea differ may very well be composted by industrial composting facilities, and the pouches of all completely different Tick Tock teas are recyclable at big supermarkets.

Twinings

Place in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

I’m delighted to report that Twinings have made the change to plastic-free teabags. A spokesperson from Twinings said “We’re pleased to say that all the teabags we produce use plant-based biodegradable provides, from our black teas to our massive collection of wellbeing blends. The material we use for our teabags will break down completely if positioned into an space authority compost caddy or meals waste bin.”

Twist Teas

Place in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

Twist Tea’s differ of fruit, pure and black teas might be present in loose-leaf and PLA pyramid teabag codecs.

Yorkshire Tea

Place in your meals waste bin | Unfastened leaf tea selection obtainable

Yorkshire Tea – along with widespread Yorkshire Tea, Yorkshire Gold, Yorkshire Tea Decaf and Yorkshire Tea for Exhausting Water – have, since September 2021, been manufactured from PLA.

Yorkshire Tea moreover says “All our merchandise in the meanwhile are carbon neutral, and what we want subsequent is for all our packaging to be “spherical” – which suggests produced from renewable, plant-based or recycled provides, and reusable, recyclable or compostable after use“.

Which Teabags Do Embody Plastic?

As of October 2024, just some teabags from big-name producers nonetheless embody plastic. These embrace the subsequent producers.

Tetley

Tetley is at current inside the technique of switching from plastic heat-sealed teabags. The mannequin says “With 9 million (teabags) to rework, we’ll’t change all of our baggage straight, nevertheless we’re starting with our large sellers of fairly Tetley Genuine 120s and 240s“. 

Tetley has been saying this for a extremely very very long time, and I haven’t been able to find a single change on this. As quickly as I’ve affirmation that every one in all Tetley’s teabags are plastic-free I’ll switch them out of this class.

Waitrose

It’s slightly little bit of a mixed bag at Waitrose. So far it appears its private mannequin of caffeinated tea baggage is produced from PLA, so may very well be disposed of in your meals waste bin. And it’s Duchy Pure differ is now residence compostable. However, its private mannequin of decaf tea is not going to be plastic-free.

I requested Waitrose for an change on twenty second March 2024 – I didn’t get a response, so I’ve reached out as soon as extra to them in October 2024. I’ll change proper right here if I get a response.

To Conclude The Plastic-Free Teabag Dialog

Many teabag producers have made the change to further planet-friendly teabags. However, it’s clear that quite a few the huge avid gamers, like Tetley and Waitrose ought to nonetheless have barely method to go sooner than all the large teabag producers are plastic-free.

In case your tea producer of different isn’t talked about proper right here, then do e mail or tweet them to ask about their teabags.

Phew, that was a protracted one! Time to put the kettle on for a plastic-free cuppa I imagine! Do you have to’ve liked this, then do moreover check out my info to probably the greatest oat milk. I’ve appeared into all types of ethics behind essentially the most well-liked oat milk producers inside the UK and uncovered all types of murky points.