Love tea? Is there Plastic in Your Teabag?
Drinking tea is part of our daily ritual. A freshly brewed cuppa gives us the get-up and go that we need to start the day. But did you know the majority of tea bags we use today contain various types of plastic? Not a lot of people do, and I certainly didn't until I came across an article about it a few years ago.
This did not sit well with me and of course, I was concerned.
All these years of tea-bag dunking AND plastic brewing in our mug. I was not a fan of blindly consuming micro-particles of plastic with my tea. How will these plastic particles affect our bodies?
After thinking about what I had just read, I decided that once we had used up our remaining box of tea bags, I would purchase the loose leaf tea variety and set out on a journey to find an alternative to brewing our beloved tea, sans plastic.
There was a time when tea bags were au natural. The first modern tea bags were made from all-natural fibres, hand-sewn fabric bags in the shape of small sacks and appearing commercially as loose tea contained within silk bags. This was, of course, all before our fast-paced world of modern convenience and tea bag producers started to include man-made materials aka plastic to make them more durable so that the teabags wouldn't fall apart.
So for all the tea-bag dunkers out there, yes, there is a high chance your teabags have plastic in them.
There is another concern when it comes to teabags plus plastic fibres. We throw out thousands, millions, billions of these little bags every day with our rubbish, so how do they fare in landfill, do they break down?
Well, it depends on the type of teabag. Not all tea bags are manufactured the same. Some tea bag manufacturers use a mix of synthetic fibres like polypropylene which sadly is not compostable or recyclable at all. Others have been starting to use plant-based materials such as Manilla hemp and cornstarch (biodegradable) which thankfully means, no plastic at all. Hooray for that!
For now, we've settled on and quite happy with using a stainless steel tea infuser that sits comfortably in our mugs. It's easy to clean, isn't fiddly to use and with the right care, should last us a lifetime. After testing a few varieties of black tea, we now have been purchasing Nerada's loose leaf tea. It's got a great robust flavour, affordable, comes in a cardboard box, plastic-free, Australian made and can be found on the bottom shelf at most supermarkets.
What I also love about buying loose leaf tea is that there are no staples and cotton strings that come along with it. These are used just once, then tossed in the bin. How incredibly wasteful is that?
Another alternative and ritual that we look forward to on the weekends, is sitting down with a freshly brewed pot of tea. The flavour only gets better the longer the tea leaves steep. I cherish our glass and stainless steel teapot that was a Mothers Day present. It pours beautifully, my dear husband had the very obliging lady at T2 test every teapot in the store until he found one that didn't dribble water down the spout! Apparently, this was the ONLY one that passed the dribble test.
Compostable or biodegradable teabags do exist, so next time you need to top up your tea bag supply, check out the brand's labels. Or if you want a long-lasting, sustainable option here are some suggestions...
Tea bag alternatives
- A stainless steel tea infuser
- Reusable tea bags (little pouches you can fill yourself)
- Brew a pot of tea in a teapot
So if you are a tea addict, there are alternatives to suit you.