Tetley is gearing up to eliminate plastic from its teabags by rolling out a biodegradable alternative.
The company has plans to launch a polypropylene-free bag as “a key priority” it told The Grocer.
“Currently, our teabags contain a small amount of plastic material so that they can be heat-sealed to keep the tea firmly in the bag. Despite this small amount, our goal is to eliminate it completely.”
To achieve its goal, Tetley has been working for more than a year with tissue supplier Purico, owner of Rochdale’s Union Papertech – which has developed Puri Seal Green, a biodegradable filtration paper aimed at combating microplastic pollution by the hot beverages industry.
The paper is made with bioplastic from corn starch and vegetable sugars, and would allow consumers “to dispose of their products with a clear conscience either at home or with their local authority” said Papertech. It has also been “proven to have strong seal strength with no impact on taste or quality”.
Puri Seal Green would “disintegrate in two weeks” in home composting, according to Papertech sales & marketing manager Chris Law, while it was also quite easily scalable. “If everybody in the UK said they wanted it, we could do it.”
Tetley said it was currently working with Papertech “to ensure their tissue can work in our high-speed, high-volume production environment and, most importantly, meet the quality standards we and our consumers expect for our products”.
A date for the launch of Tetley’s sustainable teabag – first mooted in spring 2018 – was yet to be confirmed, as the supplier was “still in the commercial development phase of this project and not quite there yet” it added. “But we are confident that by working together we will be able to achieve a workable solution that can meet all our requirements.”
Tetley will not be the first major UK tea supplier to introduce a plastic-free teabag. Names including Yorkshire Tea, Clipper and PG Tips have already done so – though Yorkshire Tea’s sustainable Gold bags drew unwanted attention at Christmas when some were found to split during use.
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