Image: Monika Grabkowska via Unsplash
You would think ginger lemon tea seems all natural and zen but no no no! That innocent-looking teabag, ladies and gentleman, can release billions of micro and nano plastics into your tea and once you’re done with it, becomes a single-use plastic.
But it doesn’t have to be this way and with a few small changes in your tea-making routine, plastic in your tea will just become a thing of the past.
The McGill University Study
I wasn’t aware that there was plastic in my tea until I came across this McGill University study. The researchers basically took 4 differently types of commercially available tea bags, took out the tea leaves inside so they won’t interfere with the study, and put the tea bags in water at brewing tea temperature. The team found that a single plastic teabag at brewing temperature released about 11.6 billion microplastic and 3.1 billion nanoplastic particles into the water.
“Table salt… has been reported to contain approximately 0.005 micrograms plastic per gram salt. A cup of tea contains thousands of times greater mass of plastic, at 16 micrograms per cup.“
Nathalie Tufenkji at McGill University
Plastic from tea bags
Turns out a lot of tea bags are made of plastic material or even if they’re made of plastic-free material, there is often plastic in the glue that seals the bag together. So when you put this tea bag in boiling hot water, you’re going to release a ton of micro and nano-plastics into your tea. Microplastics are plastic fragments that are less than 5mm in length each but larger than nanoplastics. Nanoplastics are less than a few micrometers in diameter. You can’t see them with your eyes.
You’d think if the plastic pieces are so small, they won’t do much harm. But see, we can capture bigger pieces of plastic with filters, but we can’t do that with nanoplastics. They are sneaky little elfs that can penetrate animal tissues (that includes our tissue) much more easily than larger plastic pieces.
While tea bags can release microplastic, not all teabags release the same amount of nanoplastics. The worst kind are the silky triangular bags. I thought they look classy, but turns out they are plastic. Am I describing tea bags or people I know?
Plus, let’s not forget plastic’s impact on the planet. If you’re using a tea bag with plastic, that’s basically a single use plastic you’re chucking in the bin.
What are tea brands doing about this?
Many tea brands are doing way more to make sure that their tea bags and their packaging are plastic free full stop, but it is not quite there yet because of technical limitations of non-plastic materials that would allow non-plastic tea bags to function just as well as their plastic counterpart.
Case in point, Yorkshire tea tried to use natural materials for their tea bags, but their first attempt in 2018 was “a bit of a disaster”, with bags coming apart in people’s cups.
But there is still progress worth mentioning. You still always need to read between the lines though. Clipper says their tea bags are completely plastic free, but their bags are sealed with non-GM bio-material made from plant cellulose, known as PLA. While that is 100% better than petroleum-based plastic – this material only breaks down in an industrial composter, which means it doesn’t break down by itself in the landfill or in your backyard.
Likewise for Twinings, they announced that from January 2020, they are changing all their traditional teabags into a new type of paper that is entirely plant based and fully biodegradable when placed into local authority composting.
Again while that is a big step up, many people don’t have access to industrial composting facilities in their towns. Many brands are racing to find home compostable tea bag solutions, but meanwhile, to plastic-free your tea routine, I think there are better ways to go about it than using tea bags!
Switch to Loose Leaf Tea!
One simple way to avoid plastic in your tea and in your bin post tea-making is to use loose leaf tea. This means tea leaves that don’t come in tea bags, and instead in tins, a big bag, or simply sold in bulk. You will have to use some sort of device to steep your tea and then throw the tea leaves away. No plastic, no problem.
Tea in Tins
One way of getting loose leaf tea is to get tea leaves that come in tins. In fact, a lot of my favourite old school English tea brands provide their teas in tins! They are also always so pretty so you can reuse them for different purposes. I love this blog post from Harney and Sons about ways you can repurpose your tea tins.
The great thing about tea tins is they’re usually made of steel, and steel has the highest recycling rate of any material, at more than 88 percent. While this is largely from scrap metal such as cars, steel cans are able to be recycled into any steel product.
Steels cans may be recycled infinitely with no loss of quality, with two-thirds of all new steel manufactured coming from recycled steel!
Buying in bulk
Another method is to buy loose leaf tea in bulk. You can find that in zero waste groceries stores such as Live Zero in Hong Kong. You just bring your own container, whether it is reusable a plastic bag, a Stasher bag, or an empty tea tin.
Using the right tea infuser
With using loose leaf tea, you would need a tea infuser. Traditionally, tea infusers look like a filter that you hang from the rim of your cup. They are suitable for English tea cups, but it could be annoying if you just want to have some tea at home in your favoruite mug. You would need a lot of water in your mug to reach the tea leaves in the shallow filter-style infuser.
Instead it’s better to use modern infuser options. I’ve tried various infuser options, and I think these two from Oxo and House Again have worked best for me. My mother prefers the Oxo one, I prefer the House Again one.
Note: Even if you get other tea infuser options – remember to avoid one with too small of an opening or container. This would make your steeper super hard to clean!
Oxo Twisting Tea Ball Infuser
This tea infuser ball is really cool and you basically just scoop out the tea leaves, twist the knob at the end of the handle to close the ball, put it in your mug and pour hot water in.
PROs
Independent Strong Tea Infuser – This ball is super convenient and fun to use as you don’t need an extra tool like a tea spoon for scooping tea into your infuser. It does the job end-to-end all on its own.
Easy to Use – This tool is elegantly designed. As you twist the knob, tea leaves fall gracefully from one half of the sphere to the other half of the sphere until the ball snaps close, so you don’t have to worry about tipping tea leaves over as you twist the knob.
CONs
Tea Leaf Residue – The pores of this tea infuser aren’t super tiny, so some small tea leaf fragments will sneak out. To be honest, they are definitely not big bits so you would probably not notice it too much as your drink your tea. But I am a bit OCD about this, so this matters to me.
Volume – This tea infuser doesn’t hold a loooot of tea leaves. Definitely enough for a mug-ful, but you can’t really use this to brew a pot for a few friends.
Cleaning – If I have to be super picky, I have to say it takes more effort than the House Again infuser to get all the small pieces of tea leaves out. This is because as you twist the ball to clean it, in no instance would every inside surface of the ball be exposed to a running water stream or your cleaning sponge. Trapped tea leaves (actually most of the time it’s literally ONE single trapped tea leaf…) would take a few more tries to get out. Overall, I don’t think this is a huge problem and in fact, my mother think this is easy to clean. So maybe I am just an amateur at infuser cleaning.
House Again Fine Mesh Tea Infuser
This other tea infuser is from House Again, and actually is the one I prefer more.
PROs
Easy to Use – You use a spoon to scoop tea leaves into the tea filter, screw the top close, and steep your tea. Easy peasy!
Thoughtful Design – Very considerately, this infuser comes with a little stainless steel dish to put your infuser on after you take it out of the tea so your infuser doesn’t drip tea everywhere.
Volume – The House Again infuser can hold significantly more tea leaves, which is useful for when you’re steeping a big pot of tea.
Easy to Clean – Super easy to clean. No issues here.
CONs
Chain – Sometimes you have to be aware of the mental chain linked to the lid of the infuser falling into the tea if you’re not careful. Just make sure you hook the end of the chain to the rim of your cup and you’ll be fine!
You Need a Spoon – Unlike the Oxo infuser, you need a separate spoon to scoop tea leaves into your infuser. This is not a big deal at all for most people, but something to keep in mind about.
Make the switch to loose leaf!
Since learning about the plastic problem in tea, I have switched completely to brewing with loose leaf tea. It honestly doesn’t take much more effort using loose leaf tea over tea bags. From filling the infuser to cleaning the infuser afterwards, it takes less than 30 seconds of work. In exchange you get access to way better tea leaf options, better health for yourself and for the planet. Do it already!
P.S. My favorite tea in the world is Whittard’s English Rose Tea. I don’t really like rose flavored things normally as I think it’s overly girly. But I LOVE this tea – it’s so fragrant and calming, I can drink it any time of the day.