Have we ever wondered what materials tea bags are made of and if they are really completely compostable? The answer may be far less obvious than we expect. Tea bags can be wrapped in paper bags, to be used for separate collection, but at the same time they can contain unexpected plastic materials.
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Have we ever wondered from what materials the tea bags are made of and if they really are fully compostable? The answer may be far less obvious than we expect. The tea bags they can be wrapped in paper envelopes, to be used for separate collection, but at the same time they can contain unexpected plastics.
Le tea leaves inside them, once the infusion we want has been prepared, they can be thrown into the waste bin or composter, or creatively reused if necessary, as we explained in an article on the alternative uses of tea (leftovers , sachets and leaves included).
The real difficulties arise when it comes to having to deal with dispose of the actual sachet. Tea bags appear, on the surface, to be composed solely of fabric, but in many of them they can be present plastics, as emerged following a survey conducted by the British magazine "Which? Gardening” in 2010.
From it emerged as the most tea bags contain plastics, with particular reference to Polypropylene (also referred to as polypropylene), a thermoplastic component often used in the manufacture of tea bags.
So how does their industrial production take place and what materials are used?
Tea bags are usually produced using natural hemp fiber (Manila hemp), to which some thermoplastic fibers, such as polypropylene, which are deemed necessary to end to seal everything. The tea bags look like this very resistant.
From the union of the two materials we obtain the fabric that we know, very resistant and full of small holes suitable to allow contact between theboiling water and tea leaves, without the latter being able to escape from their casing. The edges of the sachets are then thermally sealed. With heat, the thermoplastics used melt, allowing them to are well sealed.
Doubts about the rIdeal Compostability of Tea Bags arose among various readers of the magazine "Which? Gardening"Who realized how, once the consumed sachets were arranged inside the containers for the domestic compost, they seemed not never disappear completely among the accumulated food waste. This is precisely due to the presence of non-biodegradable thermoplastic materials.
Questioned by the magazine, Whitney Kakos, manager of Teadirect, confirmed that her company's tea bags they are compostable only 70% and that the use of polypropylene is a practice widespread among tea companies. The suggestion of some British companies is to throw the tea bags in the compost and of anyway take them out at the time of its use, if some parts of them were still visible. According to these tea manufacturers, in fact, despite containing thermoplastic materials, the bags in question must be considered as completely compostable and biodegradable.
From the British survey it emerged that a large part of the organic tea bags or coming from fair trade contentor thermoplastic materials used in the process of their manufacture. In addition to the degree of compostability of the tea bags, our concern is about the contact between plastics and food. According to some studies conducted in 2008, polypropylene could cause the release of BPA, now known endocrine disruptor considered potentially capable of causing problems related to infertility and correct physiological development of the fetus and newborn.
So what could be the solution to avoid buying tea bags completely polypropylene free? You could get information from the manufacturing companies, hoping for their sincerity and asking them with what manufacturing methods are made the tea bags for sale. Some of them, especially those that have a closure made with a paper label or with a staple, without other types of welding, they may be free of polypropylene.
You might as well decide to do not buy tea bags, but only of the loose tea, packaged in fully biodegradable or easily reusable containers. Once you have bought some loose tea, that will be enough equip yourself with a colander or other special perforated containers, for the preparation of the drink. Finally, you could decide to prepare your own tea bags yourself starting from loose leaves and pitted garzines or light fabrics such as those used. for wedding favors, to be used to wrap tea leaves and to be closed using cotton thread.
Marta Albè
Read also:
- Tea bags: 20 ways to reuse them
- 50 alternative uses of tea
- Plastic and food: how to recognize plastic materials that should never be used with food
