The Teabags With out Plastic In The UK In 2024

Want to know which teabags with out plastic exist throughout the UK in 2024? Look no extra – I’ve rounded up the easiest 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 stay away from sudden plastic in your drinks.

Once more in 2017, I wrote regarding the beautiful hidden plastic in teabags. Teabags that many individuals have been composting in our gardens or by way of our kerbside meals waste pickup. That put up had such an impression as many people realized for the first time that teabags comprise plastic, alongside a bunch of various beautiful devices that comprise plastic.

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

As such, I’ve appeared into over 20 teabag producers throughout the UK, to see what teabags with out plastic will be discovered. I’ve moreover appeared into how biggest to remove the luggage if you’re achieved.

Why Do Teabags Embody Plastic?

You is maybe 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 luggage like which signifies that the teabags obtained’t come open throughout the subject, 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 throughout the soil.

What Is Microplastic?

Microplastic is a giant draw back, that is nonetheless being understood by scientists right now. 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 throughout the meals we eat and the water we drink, this suggests we’re ingesting plastic, and the long-term outcomes of this are presently unknown.

Microplastic comes from numerous sources. It might derive from greater plastic particles that has degraded into smaller and smaller objects. Nonetheless, it moreover comes from teabags which had been heat-sealed with plastic, that now we’ve unwittingly composted.

How rather a lot hurt can a teabag do, you would be questioning? Successfully, one teabag alone will do little or no hurt. Nonetheless, when you consider that throughout the UK alone we drink larger than 60 billion cups of tea a yr, then it’s a wide range 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 up to the mark on among the many terminologies spherical teabags.

Sorts of Teabags

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

What About PLA Teabags?

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

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

Secondly, PLA tea baggage mustn’t home-compostable. It’s as a result of this truth essential to remove them appropriately. In case your native council collects your meals waste or yard waste bin for industrial composting, they’ll compost shortly. Nonetheless, in case your council does not accumulate your meals waste, then these teabags perform no otherwise than typical oil-based plastic tea baggage.

Once you don’t have entry to council meals waste collections, then to remove PLA teabags it is best to tear open the bag to imply you’ll be able to compost the tea leaves in your yard. Then put the teabag in alongside together with your fundamental waste.

For those who want to know further, do study my info on what’s PLA and is it biodegradable for a further detailed deep dive.

I don’t suppose PLA is a perfect reply. Like many options of sustainability, there are on a regular basis compromises. Nonetheless, other than switching to loose-leaf tea en masse, I don’t suppose there is a wonderful reply that will moreover make tea an fairly priced day-to-day staple.

The Plastic-Free Teabags In 2024

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

Aldi

Place in your meals waste bin | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

Aldi’s teabags are literally plastic-free. In June 2021, Aldi confirmed it was eradicating single-use plastic from its own-brand range of teabags. We’re glad 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 made out of PLA – so are industrially compostable.

Asda

Place in your meals waste bin | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

In October 2022 Asda launched that every one among its private mannequin teabags – along with the Merely Requirements and Additional Specific ranges – will possible be made out of industrially compostable PLA. Asda says “Tea is a staple in most purchaser’s households so for us to make a change which can make such a distinction is a gigantic second for us.”

Fowl & Combine Tea

Place in your meals waste bin | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

Brighton-based Fowl & Combine sells its hand-blended teas in PLA teabags. Or in case you want to stay away from PLA it’s possible you’ll retailer for loose-leaf tea. Alongside its commonplace black teas, the precept area the place Fowl & Combine excels is in its distinctive tea blends. Assume Rhubarb & Custard, or Chocolate Digestive flavoured tea for one factor just a little bit utterly completely different.

Brew Tea

Place in your meals waste bin | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

Along with its tasty loose-leaf tea alternative, 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, nevertheless it certainly does carry a small range of fruit and pure teas.

Clipper

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

Once more in 2017, of us 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 a lot of 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 | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

Edinburgh-based Eteaket primarily sells loose-leaf tea. That’s packaged in dwelling compostable Natureflex™ baggage and cardboard caddies. Its tea should not be probably the most inexpensive. Nonetheless, if you already have a caddy, then their loose-leaf tea will be on the market in 100% plastic-free refill baggage, which might be just a little bit cheaper.

Whereas its range of teabags is small, all Eteakat tea baggage are made out of PLA. These are packed into dwelling compostable Natureflex™ baggage, and recyclable cardboard cartons for a smaller carbon footprint.

Good & Appropriate

Place in your meals waste bin | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

Good & Appropriate’s range of award-winning teas – from its black teas to its range of pure infusions – can be found PLA teabags. For those who want to stay away from PLA, you’ll be able to too retailer for a wide range of tasty loose-leaf teas.

Hampstead Tea

Home compostable or can go in your meals waste bin | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

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 big steps almost about the environment. Consequently, the overwhelming majority of its merchandise are plastic-free (other than 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 current stock progressively sells by. I would take into consideration by March 2024 that it will have purchased its non-compostable stock – nevertheless do take a look at the sphere earlier than you buy.

Marks & Spencer

Place in your meals waste bin | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

Marks & Spencer quietly switched its teabags over to PLA in 2023, with little or no fanfare. I consider 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 when it took six years, I am genuinely glad to see that M&S’s teas are literally compostable.

Morrisons

Place in your meals waste bin | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

One different straggler, I’m glad 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 is usually 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 world commonplace that helps the sustainable use of wild-harvested elements. It moreover ensures deal all alongside the availability chain.

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

Nemi

Place in your meals waste bin | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

Nemi is a specialist London-based tea agency that gives numerous tea blends, every as unfastened tea and teabags. Along with selling great-tasting tea, Nemi provides 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 made out of PLA. Moreover, its packaging is compostable, and its teas are pure, fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance licensed. The packaging is pretty funky too.

PG Recommendations

Place in your meals waste bin | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

PG Recommendations made the change to PLA a number of years prior to now due to consumer stress. Now its full range may very well be industrially composted by way of 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. Nonetheless, each specific particular person bag used to return wrapped in an unrecyclable plastic-lined envelope. The good news is that Pukka has taken its environmental duties 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 PLA plastic-based pyramids. From banana-flavoured tea to blueberry, these distinctive tea blends tread flippantly on the planet.

Sainsbury’s

Place in your meals waste bin | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

I added Sainsbury’s to this plastic-free teabag file in August 2021. After info that from summer season 2021 Sainsbury’s own-brand teabags will possible 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 made out of PLA and are industrially compostable. What I moreover like is that the packaging is completely plastic-free too. The sector isn’t wrapped in plastic, and neither is there a plastic foil bag contained within the subject. Accessible plastic-free tea for the win!

Suki Tea

Place in your meals waste bin | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

Based in Belfast, Suki Tea ethically sources and blends loose-leaf teas, pure infusions and fruit blends from in all places on the planet. Suki Tea is biggest recognized for its tasty loose-leaf tea, nonetheless, it does have a lot of PLA-based pyramid teabags.

T2

Place in your meals waste bin | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

Australian mannequin T2 reached the UK in 2014 and has pretty just some Extreme St retailers dotted throughout the UK. I would say T2 might be biggest recognized for its loose-leaf tea alternative. Nonetheless, its range of pyramid teabags is made out of 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. Nonetheless, Teapigs didn’t stop there. Just some years prior to now the mannequin moreover switched the plastic inside bag to a home compostable bag. Prime plastic-free marks!

Not too way back 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 take heed to.

Tesco

Place in your meals waste bin | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

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

Tick Tock Tea

Place in your meals waste bin | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

Tick Tock’s range of naturally decaffeinated rooibos teas is accessible in every PLA teabags and in loose-leaf codecs. Packaging-wise, the within pouch of its Chilly Brew Rooibos tea range may very well be composted by way of industrial composting providers, and the pouches of all completely different Tick Tock teas are recyclable at huge supermarkets.

Twinings

Place in your meals waste bin | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

I’m delighted to report that Twinings have made the change to plastic-free teabags. A spokesperson from Twinings said “We’re glad to say that every one 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 right into a neighborhood authority compost caddy or meals waste bin.”

Twist Teas

Place in your meals waste bin | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

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

Yorkshire Tea

Place in your meals waste bin | Free leaf tea alternative on the market

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

Yorkshire Tea moreover says “All our merchandise are literally carbon neutral, and what we wish subsequent is for all our packaging to be “spherical” – which suggests made out of 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 comprise plastic. These embody the following producers.

Tetley

Tetley is presently throughout the technique of switching from plastic heat-sealed teabags. The mannequin says “With 9 million (teabags) to rework, we’re in a position to’t change all of our baggage at once, nevertheless we’re starting with our big sellers of lovely Tetley Distinctive 120s and 240s“. 

Tetley has been saying this for a very 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 among Tetley’s teabags are plastic-free I’ll switch them out of this class.

Waitrose

It’s just a little little bit of a blended bag at Waitrose. Up to now it appears its private mannequin of caffeinated tea baggage is made out of PLA, so may very well be disposed of in your meals waste bin. And it’s Duchy Pure range is now dwelling compostable. Nonetheless, its private mannequin of decaf tea may not 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. Nonetheless, it’s clear that among the many big avid gamers, like Tetley and Waitrose ought to nonetheless have just a little bit method to go sooner than all the massive teabag producers are plastic-free.

In case your tea producer of choice 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 consider! Once you’ve beloved this, then do moreover check out my info to the biggest oat milk. I’ve appeared into every kind of ethics behind probably the most well-liked oat milk producers throughout the UK and uncovered every kind of murky points.