Cost of taking action: £/$/€ NIL
From our guest writer Jasmin in Australia
Replace your teabags with loose leaf tea
This action is a simple switch which can improve your health and reduce environmental waste.
Every year, across the world people consume billions of litres of tea. In fact, tea is the second most consumed beverage (after water)!
And, for most of us, we still brew our tea using single-use teabags.
Why is this important?
Unfortunately, these small pouches of convenience often contain non-biodegradable polypropylene (to seal the bag), as well as glue, chlorine bleach (for the white colour), and microplastics. Just imagine this concoction releasing into your favourite cuppa and into the environment.
Teabags cannot be composted or put into garden waste, because of the plastic content.
A Simple Alternative
A simple change can remove those chemicals and microplastics and ease up on the number of single-use teabags going into landfill.
Simply switch from teabags to loose leaf tea. Loose leaf tea can easily be purchased from supermarkets, as well as from health food shops and other retailers.
Easily brew your loose leaf tea at home using:
- a traditional teapot and strainer
- a saucepan on the stove and a steel strainer or cheese cloth to remove the leaves before drinking
- a stainless-steel tea infuser which is an all-in-one to brew and contain the leaves
Other benefits
Loose leaf tea often has more flavour due to the use of higher quality leaves, and the added space for these leaves to fully absorb water when brewed.
How about saving some money too? Loose leaf tea is priced by weight, whilst teabags are often priced per bag. Loose leaf tea can also be purchased in bulk, or in tins to avoid the use of plastics..
Please take action
Taking action is simple. Next time you’re buying tea, pick up the loose leaf rather than the teabag. Every loose leaf cup you brew helps to reduce the amount of plastics and chemicals going into your body and into the environment.
NB Subsequent to the original publication of this article, we are aware that some tea bag manufacturers are changing to non-plastic, compostable products. These are fine to use but please check the environmental claims being made first.
This article has been contributed by
Jasmin Harrison
Web: www.word-wizardry.com
Insta: @word_wizardry
Twitter: @wizardryword