TESCO has made a major change to a supermarket essential and shoppers will love it.
Customers will be thrilled to hear that the grocer has made a change to the material used in its tea bags.
Tesco is replacing the material used in its own-brand tea bags
All Tesco own-brand tea bags will be fully recyclable by the summer
Tesco is introducing plant-based packaging which will allow shoppers to recycle their tea bags.
The supermarket sells over one billion tea bags every year and the move will see that all own-brand tea bags are fully recyclable by the summer.
The grocer has already begun rolling out its new compostable tea bags across its herbal and speciality tea lines.
By April 2023 the rest of Tesco’s own-brand tea bags will have been replaced with a compostable plant-based material.
And by the summer, all of the billion tea bags sold by Tesco will be compostable through council food waste collections.
The own-brand move includes some of the supermarket’s most popular tea lines including:
- Tesco 240 Teabags
- Tesco Extra Strong Tea 80 Bags
- Tesco Finest Earl Grey 100 Tea Bags
- Tesco Peppermint 40 Tea Bags
- Tesco Finest English Breakfast 100 Tea Bags
The move comes after only 30% of adults polled said that they knew tea bags contain plastic resulting in confusion and leading to tea bags being discarded in the wrong way.
For decades, tea bag manufacturers have used a plastic, called polypropylene, to heat seal the bags in order to prevent the contents from spilling out once hot water is poured over them.
Adele Kearns, Tesco packaging manager said: “This is a huge move that will help clear up the confusion for millions of people on how to dispose of their tea bags once used.
“We hope that making all of our tea bags compostable with clear labelling helps our customers correctly do their bit for the environment.”
But Tesco isn’t the only supermarket to have made the change.
Asda introduced plant-based tea bags late last year.
The change saw new tea bags introduced in Asda’s Gold, Everyday and Decaf boxes, as well as its herbal and low-cost Just Essentials range.
Asda has said that the new tea bags are made from corn starch, which is a natural, plant-based material.
Aldi Specially Selected Infusion tea bags and Co-Op’s own brand 99 tea bags are also fully recyclable.
And Lidl’s pyramid tea bags and Sainsbury’s own brand tea bags are also plastic-free and fully recyclable.
But certain supermarkets and brands are far behind.
Certain Aldi, Lidl and Marks & Spencer bags still contain non-recyclable materials.
Some major tea brands have too switched their bags with big brands like PG Tips now selling recyclable tea bags.
Teapigs and Twinings’ pyramid range also contain fully recyclable plastic-free bags.
But Tetley and some Twinings tea bags still contain plastic – meaning that they won’t break down in the recycling process.
It’s best to check the label to make sure your tea bags can be disposed of in this way.
We’ve previously tried own-brand teabags and a supermarket version made a better cuppa than PG Tips and Tetley.
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