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Tea bags & microplastics - Veggie - 19-10-2025
"Which" have published an article about hidden microplastics in teabags.
https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/is-there-plastic-in-your-tea-aIY8X5t1gpcm?mi_u=227972139&mi_ecmp=SUS_EM_Prod__20251019
Naively, perhaps, I'd assumed that where the packet says the teabags are compostable, that was the end to the problem. I was wrong! The microplastics are leeching into our cuppas from the sealant used to form the teabag. .....and that's before they reach the compost bin. Its a bit scary really.
I'd heard that teabags were best avoided and have been using more looseleaf tea, but I thought it might be because of the additional manufacturing processes/resources required to bag up the tealeaves.
From today, I'm going to stop using teabags. Since I have so many "free" ones, I'll empty the teabags into the pot so that the "teabag" doesn't come into contact with heat. Hope this will help me avoid the microplastics but still enable me to use the (bagless) tea.
Ideally, I would be making herb tea using plants from the garden, but, being surrounded by FREE teabags, I've been tempted away from growing my Own Tea Garden. Maybe, next year's project?
RE: Tea bags & microplastics - Small chilli - 19-10-2025
You could get these to empty your tea into.
https://ebay.us/m/ESN0Ef
The couple that work in the cafe the other 4 days a week make their own tea blends and use these bags.
RE: Tea bags & microplastics - Veggie - 19-10-2025
That's a good idea!.I'm currently emptying a load of teabags into a jar and I'll take a spoonful out for my teapot. One teabag lasts me a day as I keep topping up the pot. I probably have about 10 years supply!!
RE: Tea bags & microplastics - Vinny - 19-10-2025
Reminds me of a clip I spotted somewhere where a Victorian time travelling lady arriving in this day and age, was breaking tea bags open and adding them to the pot?
Wasn't you Veggie , was it?
RE: Tea bags & microplastics - Veggie - 19-10-2025
I may be old, Vinny, but not quite Victorian old.
RE: Tea bags & microplastics - Bren - 19-10-2025
We’ve always used Co-op fair trade loose tea, but relented and used their tea bags when camping.
My gran always said tea bag were made from sweeping up’s so that was drilled into me as a child.
RE: Tea bags & microplastics - Veggie - 19-10-2025
(19-10-2025, 04:56 PM)Bren Wrote: We’ve always used Co-op fair trade loose tea, but relented and used their tea bags when camping.We visited a tea plantation and tea factory in Sri Lanka and one of the group told the tea man - much the same thing. The tea man laughed and said that all the sweepings go to the British supermarkets!! I "think" he was joking.
My gran always said tea bag were made from sweeping up’s so that was drilled into me as a child.
RE: Tea bags & microplastics - Vinny - 19-10-2025
(19-10-2025, 12:59 PM)Small chilli Wrote: You could get these to empty your tea into.Stange how the above just turned up in my ebay watch list after checking them out!
https://ebay.us/m/ESN0Ef
The couple that work in the cafe the other 4 days a week make their own tea blends and use these bags.
RE: Tea bags & microplastics - JJB - 20-10-2025
I never knew the microplastics arrived before the composting! I do resort to destructuring the dead teabag nowadays, having suffered the uncomposted bags littering the ground for years when I just chucked the lot in the compost bin. Whether I can stomach loose leaf tea is another matter, I always seem to get a mouthful of bits. I do have one of those enclosed 'spoons' with holes in that would hold a cuppa's worth of loose tea, but TBH I can't see me faffing with that.
RE: Tea bags & microplastics - Bren - 20-10-2025
JJB you need a teapot and a strainer, be selective buying a strainer some have holes too large and let the 'bits' through.