I don’t know about you but if I don’t have a strong builder’s cuppa within half an hour of waking up, I’m pretty much a write off for the morning! And I probably wouldn’t still have a day job without constant refills throughout the day! But did you know that most high street branded tea bags contain polypropylene plastics? WHY?! I hear you ask? These plastics are used to bind the bag material and seal the contents inside so they don’t split.
Once the bag and tea leaves have degraded, a small plastic ‘skeleton’ remains which is non-degradable/recyclable, and if you have composted your tea bags, this element will remain in your soil. Consider the amount of tea bags we get through every year - 165 million tea bags are used everyday – and suddenly this small issue becomes a significant micro plastic concern.
To avoid using another day to day product that has somehow unnecessarily become consumed by plastic in the production line, we recently transitioned to loose leaf tea to do our bit. We bought a very cute and stylish single tea pot with a built in tea infuser and a single stainless steel mesh infuser that you happily pop into a mug when making single cups of tea.
I love it! My tea tastes better (and stronger, just how I like it!), you can top up the water and re-use the leaves from the previous cuppa and our waste has again been reduced. If you’re in need of a recommended brand, look no more than the recently launched herbal range from Cox & Baloney which has a tea for every mood whether it’s a pick me up or a put me to sleep! When you’re after good old builders, then I’ve opted for Yorkshire Tea and a good Assam.
Obviously the leaves are food grade so pop them in your food waste caddy or compost heap once used to complete the cycle back into our land!