The world's top-drink, but what are you drinking?
Nearly everyone in the world drinks tea. After water, tea is the most drunk beverage in the World.
But in the UK alone, we are unknowingly drinking 5 tonnes of tiny plastic particles, every day.
Most teabags are made up of 25% plastic.
A single teabag releases about 11.6 billion microplastics and 3.1 billion nanoplastic particles into your cup, gut and the environment.
Microplastics can have a toxic effect on marine life, actually stunting their growth and even causingbehavioural abnormalities and changes in what they eat.
Strip it back
If you take your average tea bag and tear it open, what you’re left with is finely cut tea granules, small enough to fit inside teabags.
So why overcomplicate things with bags, wrappers, and boxes?
However you like your tea, the brew-time is the same. One tea strainer is all you need. There’s no waste, and you don’t have to drink plastic.
Let’s loose-leaf.
The swap effect
Switch to loose-leaf and help save plastic particles from entering the ocean and your body.
Plastics have now been found in the most remote regions of the ocean and it is estimated we eat a credit card sized piece of plastic every week.
Plastics in the body have been linked to an array of negative health outcomes including cancer, cardiovascular diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic inflammation, auto-immune conditions, neuro-degenerative diseases, and stroke.
By switching to loose-leaf you will reduce unknown health complications for yourself and your body.
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What else can you do?
Go bagless
Scientists say the ultimate eco-friendly solution is to avoid tea bags and drink loose-leaf tea. There are many delicious loose-tea options out there, just add a stainless-steel brewing pod or sieve and you’re away. Make sure you choose a plastic free packaging option too.
Go local
Seek out your nearest package free store and support your local business and community.
Reduce and recycle
Reduce your plastic waste consumption both at home and at work and never litter or leave your rubbish behind. Or go one step further and organise your own ocean clean-up.
Same brew, different chat
The next time you go for a cup of tea use it to instigate a conversation around swapping plastic teabags for loose tea.
On the go
Always carry a re-usable tea/coffee cup
Speak up
Start a local petition to ban single use plastic. Support organisations working on plastic pollution.