What Is in Your Tea? – Microplastic Pollution in Tea

Everyone loves a cup of hot tea. It is a great way to start your day. Tea bags offer a convenient way to make your tea. They eliminate the need for using loose tea leaves and straining your tea. While teabags are popular, they also have their drawbacks. 

You may be swallowing billions of tiny plastic particles while sipping a cup of freshly brewed gourmet tea, a new study from McGill University in Montreal suggests.  Plastic tea bags – when steeping in nearly boiling water – shed more than 10 billion microplastic and nano plastic particles into the water, a level "thousands of times higher than those reported previously in other food." 

The bits are so tiny — on average, the size of grains of dust or pollen — that the amount in one cup is about 16 micrograms or one-sixtieth of a milligram of plastic. As these teabags contain plastic, they are not entirely compostable. This is bad for the environment. 

The simplest way to avoid plastic in tea bags is to use loose tea. Using loose tea leaves not only helps you save money; you also contribute to protecting the environment by avoiding plastic in tea bags. 

At The EcoFairy, our goal is to help you build a more sustainable life by offering you a line of reusable products. We offer products that last and that will help you reduce the amount of plastic you use.