Plastic Free Tea Bags: Which Brands Are Really Plastic Free?

Plastic free tea bags? Yes, you heard that right…

Your cup of tea might contain 11 billion microplastic particles and this is due to the way the tea bag is engineered.

According to a 2019 Canadian study at McGill University published in the Environmental Science & Technology Journal, steeping a plastic tea bag at a brewing temperature of 95°C releases around 11.6 billion microplastics into a single cup. Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic between 100 nanometres and 5 millimetres in size. Compared to salt, for example, which has been also found to contain plastic, each cup contains thousands of times greater mass of plastic, at 16 micrograms per cup.

How are Tea Bags Manufactured?

Let’s go one step back and understand how a tea bag is made and why it might contain plastic:

Are you shocked? Yes, we were too. We couldn’t believe that incorporating plastic in tea bags wasn’t tested for migration before engineering them, without even mentioning that fact that they are of course not biodegradable and compostable.

From now on, ask the brand of your prefered tea if they manufacture the tea bags using plastic or even better for you and the environment, switch completely to loose leaf tea.

So, Why is there Plastic in Some Tea Bags?

The plastic in tea bags is used to heat seal the filter bag and to prevent it from falling apart. It can be:

• inside the paper filter bags and/or
• in the glue used to heat seal the bags, mostly in form of polypropylene (PP).

Both of these materials can migrate into hot water. Most tea brands that used to use plastic in the filter tea bags are now transitioning to biodegradable PLA polylactic acid based material (see the explanation below). In their response to customers, they will reply that their product is plastic-free but in reality they mean it is free of conventional plastic and most often made of bio-plastics.

Plastic Free Tea Bags

Here is a 2023 updated guide to some of the most available and favourite plastic free tea brands in Australia and other English speaking countries. We list the sustainable tea brands in alphabetical order and the answers were provided by the manufacturers or we found the information on their respective websites, in the FAQ section. In that case, we link to the source.

This post contains affiliate links, which means we may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. This helps us continue the very hard work we put into researching products and solutions. It took us weeks to compile this overview.

• Bromley:

• • Response by the manufacturer: “Our teabag paper is made from wood pulp. They are heat sealed together without using glue. They do not contain any plastics of any kind and are totally compostable.” Source: e-mail.
  • Shop the Bromley tea range at Amazon: USA – Canada

• Celestial Seasonings

• • Their pillow tea bags (i.e. tea bags without strings, tags, staples, or foil envelopes) have plastic fibers, so if you are looking for tea bags without food-grade polypropylene, their TeaWell products, their food-service style products, and their certified organic Canadian teas use tea bag paper that does not contain any plastic fibers and have a string, tag, staple, and individual wrapper. Source: response via Facebook messenger.

• • Shop Celestial Seasonings tea on Amazon: USA – Canada – UK – Australia

• Harney & Sons:

• • Paper tea bags: “Our paper tea bags are compostable, oxygen bleached with a method that does not produce dioxins, there is no epichlorohydrin, PET, or PLA in our paper tea bags. We offer a variety of certified organic teas in them. The tea bags are fastened with a knot in the string, there is no glue or staple on the tea bag, and they are a great choice if you have any concerns about plastics.”
  • Shop the Harney & Sons range at Amazon: USA – Canada – UK – Australia

• Higher Living Organic Tea Australia:

• • Their teabags are made out of unbleached paper with an organic cotton string stitched into the paper to form the teabag, therefore there’s no plastic. The teabag is completely compostable along with their envelope and the boxes are recyclable.
  • Shop the Higher Living range on Amazon: Australia

• Ito En:

• • Oi Ocha Green Tea Tea Bags: Paper, no glue.
  • Oi Ocha Hoji Tea Bags: Paper, no glue.
  • Source: response via e-mail.
  • Shop Ito En on Amazon: USA – Canada – UK – Australia

• Lipton:

• • Lipton replied to us that their Quality Black and Intense Quality Black Tea traditional tea bags are made from Manilla hemp and cellulose fibres. They are compostable, but not recyclable. Please note: we received the email in July 2022 by one of our readers that stated receiving a different answer from the manufacturer and that their tea bags are lined with polyethylene. This shows lack of transparency and we couldn’t find any source of information on their website a part from the Cold Brew Tea Bags (see below under tea bags with PLA).
  • Shop this Lipton range on Amazon: USA – Canada – UK – Australia

• Lyons:

• • The company who manufactures the tea bags in the UK, has phased out plastics entirely from their tea range and has transitioned to biodegradable and compostable plant-based tea bags.
  • The Lyons biodegradable teabags are now all plant-based and made of a blend of natural fibers, including abaca, cellulose fibers, and a small amount of thermoplastic fibers. They do not use PLA in their teabags. The thermoplastic fibers used in their teabags are necessary to seal the tea bag and prevent the tea leaves from escaping. However, they have ensured that the amount of thermoplastic fibers used is minimal, making up less than 5% of the teabag paper. In their words: “Our commitment to sustainability is paramount, and we are constantly seeking ways to minimize our impact on the environment. Our biodegradable teabags are designed to break down naturally in composting conditions, leaving no harmful residues. We have also eliminated the use of staples and glue in our teabags to make them even more eco-friendly.”
  • Source: response via e-mail and their website.
  • Shop the Lyons range on Amazon: USA – Canada – UK

• Nature’s Cuppa Organic Tea:

• • The manufacturer – EatRite Australasia Pty Ltd – who is based in Australia responded that their tea bags are made with unbleached paper (made from a tree grown especially for tea bag paper mainly in the north part of Europe), and no polymers, nor plasticisers. Nature’s Cuppa is also certified organic by the National Association of Sustainable Agriculture Australia (NASAA) and NOP (USDA) Regulation certified by Control Union Certification, which wouldn’t be achievable they included plastic according to the manufacturer. The tea bags are closed with a metal staple.
  • Shop Nature’s Cuppa on Amazon: USA – Australia

• Pukka:

• • Their tea bag paper is made of a special blend of natural abaca (a type of banana), wood pulps and plant cellulose fibres. They use a simple stitch of organic cotton and a unique folding process. They don’t need to use polypropylene to hold their teabags together and these are therefore free from plastic and home compostable (they are even applying for an independent certification). They were the first company to ever use 100% organic, non-GMO cotton tea bag strings to hold the teabags together without the need of a metal staple or polypropylene. Find out more here.
  • Shop the Pukka tea range on Amazon: USA – Canada – UK – Australia

• Qi Tea Australia and New Zealand:

• • Qi tea bags are completely plastic free. They try to keep all their packaging as completely plastic free as possible so it’s 100% recyclable and use veggie inks so it’s also compostable. The only part that has a little plastic is the envelope wrapper, because it helps keep it fresher longer, but they are working on an alternative substrate for that. Qi Teas are independently certified organic by international accreditation body Ecocert, as well as the Soil Association in the UK. The bags are not bleached and are free from glue and aluminium staples.
  • Shop Qi Tea on Amazon: UK – Australia

• Tetley:

• • We received a response by Tetly Tea Australia.
  • String and Tag tea bags: used in Tetley Black and Tetley Green Tea (excluding All Rounder): “Our string and tag bags are made from a natural fiber woven paper – (mostly Abaca fiber and short wood fibers). Although not specifically tested by us for biodegradability / compostability, used tea bags can be home composted, but we would recommend removing the aluminium staple if present. Our Tea Bags utilizes a staple to hold it together as it is made from an aluminum alloy which is used primarily in food production due to its absence of toxicity. Using a staple instead of adhesive also allows us to not have any plastic in the bag composition. Source: response bvia e-mail.
  • Shop the Tetley Black and Tetley Green Tea on Amazon: USA – Canada – UK – Australia

Related: The 10 Best Plastic-free Electric Kettles

Tea Bags with Plant-Based Bioplastic (PLA) or Plasticisers

• Barry’s Tea:

• • Barry’s Tea states that after significant investment in the redesign and development of their machinery, 100% of the black tea range, produced in Cork and available in shops are biodegradable. Since the end of September 2021 all of the Fruit, Herbal and Green teas are now also biodegradable. According to the manufacturer you can put the tea bags in your food waste bin at home for industrial composting. The manufacturer confirmed that their tea bags have a special blend of biodegradable PLA thermoplastic fibres, abaca and selected cellulosic fibres.
  • Source: website’s sustainability page and direct communication.
  • Shop Barry’s Tea on Amazon: USA – Canada – UK – Australia

• Bushells:
  • Their tea bag paper is made from manila hemp, cellulose and thermoplastic fibers, as such they are not compostable or recyclable. The company didn’t reply to our request for an update.

• Celestial Seasonings:

• • Their pillow tea bags (i.e. tea bags without strings, tags, staples, or foil envelopes to reduce materials added to waste sites) are manufactured through a totally chlorine-free (TCF) whitening process, meaning that no dioxin is released into the environment. Plus, they never contain starch or gluten, but they do contain some food-grade polypropylene. Source: response via Facebook messenger.

• Dilmah

• • The tagless teabags, also called “pot bags”, are made with a plastic-free PLA material and are biodegradable.
  • Their pyramid style Exceptional Tea Selection range are also made with a plastic-free PLA material and are biodegradable.
  • Their standard teabags (non-pyramid bags that have a string, a tag and often an envelope) i.e. Dilmah Premium Tea Selection, Ceylon Green Tea and Infusions are composed mostly of natural cellulose fibres which contain no plastic coating such as epichlorohydrin and do not use chemical paper bleaching. Currently, these tagless teabags which do not use a staple or string to seal the bag contain 2% of polypropylene fibres used only for the heat seal that joins the bag together. These polypropylene fibres are a food-safe material which does not leech into water (like nylon or PET). For environmental reasons however, some choose to use loose leaf tea or organic teabags.
  • Source: website and their sustainablity report (which breaks down the packaging and material information of all tea formats in their product portfolio).
  • Shop the Dilmah range at Amazon: USA – Canada – UK – Australia

• Harney & Sons: 
  • Sachet fabric tea bags: “We are excited to announce that we started producing sachet fabric from compostable sugarcane in 2021, and have now achieved 90% sugarcane material use on our product lines. We have been using the new material in production alongside our BPA free food grade nylon. Please note that the new material is industrial compostable and any nanoparticles created during steeping are digested by the body. The sugarcane does not produce any increase in the glycemic content of our teas.” Source: e-mail and website blog.
  • To shop use the links listed above.

• Ito En:
  • Matcha Green Tea Traditional: BPA-free PET or nylon mesh that meet FDA regulatory requirements for hot beverage contact applications. And food grade glue is used to attach teabag and string.
  • Source: response via e-mail.

• Lidl UK – Deluxe Earl Grey Tea

• • We enquired via email with Lidl Great Britain about their Deluxe Earl Grey teabags and they replied after verifyng with the supplier that the tea bags are made of cellulose fibers (from soft wood pulp & abaca) + polylactic acid (PLA) which are all biodegradable. Source: response via e-mail.

• Lidl USA
  • We enquired via email about the following product ranges: The Organic Tea Range / The Irish Breakfast Tea / The Preferred Selection Range. They replied that according to their supplier, the tea bags are made with filter paper and comprise of a blend of cellulose fibers (wood pulp), Abaca and a very small amount of acrylic binder (to prevent microwave bursting) and PAE (Poly-Amide-Epichlorohydrin) as a wet strength plastic resin (so the paper doesn’t fall apart in water). Source: response via e-mail.

• Lipton
  • Lipton Green Decaf, Chai and Herbal traditional tea bags are made from manilla hemp, cellulose and thermoplastic fibers. They are not compostable or recyclable.
  • Lipton Cold Brew Tea Bags are made of plant-based biodegradable PLA material.
  • Shop the Lipton Cold Brew tea range: USA – Canada  – Australia

• Madame Flavour Australia:
  • Madama Flavour is an Australian family tea business with French and Kiwi roots.
  • The pyramid bags have a silky finish, no staple. They are made of a plant-based (PLA corn-starch derived) material trademarked as Soilon and sourced from Japan and are fully biodegradable according to their statement. The tags are attached to the pyramid material by ultrasonic heat, with no glue involved. Source: Madame Flavour website.

• Madura Australia:
  • In July 2021 they transitioned to 100% natural plant-based PLA tea bag paper and tea bag componentry. The fully sustainable and renewable fibres are made from a selected blend of high-quality Manila hemp, cellulose and biopolymer made from natural plant material. The transition occurred on across all 50’s & 100’s tea bag packets, as well as 20’s & 80’s enveloped tea bag packets.
  • The Leaf Infuser (pyramid) teabags have for a long time been made exclusively from 100% natural plant-based PLA tea bag paper, and not only do they not emit plastic microparticles or nanoparticles, and they are compostable. They do however recommend that you place these teabags out in your green bin as they break down best under commercial waste conditions.
  • Source: FAQs on their website.
  • Shop the Madura range on Amazon: Australia

• Nerada Australia:
  • Their filter paper is manufactured using a blend of high-quality manila hemp, which does contain a tiny percentage (less than 2%) of food-grade synthetic fibres. Source: blog post on their website.
  • Shop the Nerada tea range on Amazon: Australia

• Tetley :
  • Tetley Round Tagless tea bags – used in Tetley All Rounder: “Our All Rounder tagless tea bags are comprised primarily (75%) from cellulose fibers (plant matter), with the remaining 25% made from food safe plastic. This plastic is important for heat-sealing the teabags, so the tea does not escape in your cuppa. Although compostable, small pieces of plastic mesh may remain. Our goal is to eliminate the plastic content completely and we have been working with the top global tissue suppliers to identify a workable solution. Recent trials have been encouraging, but there is still work to do to ensure the tissue can meet the quality standards we and our consumers expect for our products. We are confident that a workable and reliable solution is possible and we are working as hard as we can to achieve this.”
  • Source: response via e-mail and the sustainability report on their website.

• Twinings:

• • We found this information on their Australian website. We cannot garantee that this is true for the rest of the world but at least they are making progress:  “We have changed over our tea paper on all Australian string & tag tea bag formats, to plant-based and biodegradable materials. These products will be finding their way to our shelves shortly and will replace our previous tea bag material. We are now in the process of certifying these as home compostable in Australia & New Zealand. We have already had approval in Europe, that the tea bags are industrially compostable to EN 13432 certification, which means they can be put into the green council bins, but we’re going one step further here).
  • “The material used in our pyramid Infuser tea bags is PLA, which is made from plant starch and selected for its environmentally sustainable nature; our new Cold In’fuse products are part of this range.” Source: response via Facebook messenger.
  • Shop the Twinings tea range on Amazon: USA – Canada – UK – Australia

Vahdam 

• • We received this response via e-mail: “Please note that the tea bags you currently received are made of food-grade nylon mesh. We had adopted these to be able to deliver garden fresh teas to our consumers across ~138 counties. However, our R&D and packaging team has been toiling incessantly to come up with more sustainable packaging. We are happy to share with you that we have started shipping out our new plant-based teabags and you should be able to order them by end of 2022, or mid-2023 depending on the geography.”

Related: Microplastics in Food: The Latest Research.

What is PLA or Polylactic Acid?

PLA stands for poly-lactic acid and it is a vegetable-based biodegradable plastic material, which commonly uses cornstarch as a raw material, but remember much of the corn supply is genetically modified! The good news is that it is not fossil based (no petroleum based).

Are Plant Based Plastic (PLA) Tea Bags Compostable?

Of course 100% paper bags can be composted in your backyard compost or placed in your FOGO (Food Organics and Garden Organics) bin. However, PLA tea bags will not necessarily biodegrade in your backyard compost, unless you live in the tropics with a very hot and humid climate. If your climate is not warm enough, it will be harder for PLA to break down within the time frame specified by global ‘Compostable’ labelling standards. However, PLA can fully break down in industrial and municipal composting facilities, in certain controlled environments (i.e. controlled humidity and temperature), of which there are only few in Australia. Always ask your Council if tea bags are accepted in your FOGO bin. We have read that some Councils don’t accept them for fear of contamination with plastic tea bags.

Further Tip: Try to Tear Your Tea Bag!

If you try to tear your tea bag, you can easily understand if it is made with plastic. If it doesn’t tear at all, it means it is nylon or propylene, and it is particularly true for those pyramid shaped silky tea bags. This video shows this clearly.

Choose Loose Leaf Tea

For your health and for the environment, of course, the best way to drink tea free of microplastic is to use loose leaf tea and we love to drink our Chai Latte with our reusable telescopic straws.

T2, Nerada, Harney & Sons nearly every tea brand offers loose tea. The list of loose tea brands is endless!

On our directory for solutions to plastic pollution, we are listing eco-brands that offer their own range of loose leaf tea in certified home compostable packaging, so that you don’t have to worry if your tea bag is plastic free or not. For example:

• Matcha Yu – Certified Organic Matcha Green Tea Powder

Do you have any question or comment?

Or maybe would you like to give us some more information about other tea brands?

Just write in the section below or email info@implasticfree.com

Browse the Food & Drinks section of our eco-brands directory to find products in plastic-free packaging.

This article has been last updated on June 2023.

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