Packaging is quite rightly a hot topic, and choosing how to package our tea remains a thrilling challenge for our sustainability and innovation team. We are bound by a carefully considered balance between protecting the quality of our tea leaves and ensuring our packaging has minimal environmental impact.
Our packaging is for the most part, designed with reusability in mind, such as our ziplock bags, refillable tea caddies, and magnetic labels.
Guided by packaging experts, we have created a roadmap whereby we consider the impact of our packaging from a full lifecycle approach; this means looking at where the materials come from and how likely they are to be recycled or composted in their given location. We won’t be swayed by buzz words or green claims that are unsubstantiated. Waste management infrastructure and policy vary so widely geographically, so we also carefully research the infrastructure in the countries where our teas are most widely distributed.
Our highest priority is encouraging the switch to loose leaf tea, made easy with our Loose Leaf Starter Kits.
What are we Doing Now?
Reduce: Choose Loose
Our primary focus is on reduction in packaging. An integral part of our approach is empowering and enabling our customers to choose loose leaf tea over tea bags wherever possible. Loose leaf tea delivers the best drinking experience, uses less packaging, and reduces waste. That’s why 100% of our teas are available as loose leaf, and we give customers the tips and tools to enable the easy switch.
Buying loose leaf helps reduce packaging altogether.
Invest & Test
Although the jury is still out on whether bioplastic compostable packaging is genuinely better for the environment than an easily recyclable traditional plastic, we’re investing in trialling biodegradable packaging options. We have materials currently in test phase and are guided by industry experts on compostable plastic packaging, such as WRAP, a leading climate action NGO in the UK.
How to handle our packaging?
Compost: Tea bags
Our whole leaf tea bags have always been free from traditional oil-based plastic. They are made of a plant-based material PLA. PLA is biodegradable in industrial composters, so just pop your used teabags in your council food waste bin.
All of our tea bags are made from plant-based material and are biodegradable in industrial composters.
Recycle: Packs
Our loose leaf and unenveloped tea bag pouches are recyclable in the soft plastics recycling waste stream. In the UK, some councils collect this roadside, but many don’t, so we recommend taking empty packs to your local soft plastics recycling points. These are usually found at large supermarkets. To find out where your closest soft plastics recycling point is, put your postcode in here.
The future
We will continue to trial novel packaging materials and work with experts to understand their full lifecycle impact. We won’t make a switch until we are confident that a new material is truly better for the environment and can sufficiently protect our tea quality. We are committed to championing behaviour change to get as many people as possible enjoying the many benefits of a great cup of loose leaf tea.