If you were asked what makes a tea bag, what would you say? Tea, paper and maybe a bit of string? Well, you may be surprised to discover that a majority of tea bags actually contain plastic. Yes, you heard right, plastic!
It turns out that small amounts of polypropylene are used to seal the tea bags so that you don’t get (god forbid) loose tea floating around in your cup.
You might have noticed something was awry when trying to compost your tea bags – the little blighters never seem to disappear. Tea bag ghosts hanging out on your compost heap. It’s the plastic that’s to blame.
Ordinarily, a small amount of plastic in a tea bag wouldn’t be an issue, but given we’re a country that drinks around 165 million cups of tea a day, these small amounts really do add up and impact our eco-system.
So, what can we do about this? The good news is that many tea bag manufacturers are looking to reduce or remove the plastic in their bags, and some tea companies already sell plastic free bags. But of course, the best solution is switching to loose leaf tea. Not only does loose leaf tea taste better, but you also can be 100% sure it doesn’t contain any plastic. Let’s all banish those little ghosts from down the end of the garden.
