Yorkshire Tea is a popular tea brand that is consumed across the world. Recently, Yorkshire Tea have focussed on their eco-friendly credentials with several innovations to improve the sustainability of their tea bags and packaging.
We’ll find out whether Yorkshire Tea is biodegradable.
Is The Yorkshire Tea Bag Box Biodegradable?
Yorkshire Tea boxes are made from a cardboard that is sourced from an FSC® Certified wood. The FSC® (Forest Stewardship Council®) is a non-profit organisation which promotes responsible forest management. This includes harvesting wood sustainably to ensure forest biodiversity, continued productivity and to ensure ecological processes are preserved.
This box is biodegradable and can be recycled with paper and other cardboard.
Are Yorkshire Tea Bags Biodegradable?
75% of each tea bag is made from natural fibres. These are a mix of wood pulp and abaca (a type of banana plant) or rayon (made from wood pulp).
The other 25% is an oil-based plastic sealing material called polypropylene. Yorkshire Tea are currently trying to switch polypropylene for a renewable plant-based material that is industrially compostable. This bioplastic is called Polylactic Acid (PLA) and is made from cornstarch which is much more environmentally friendly than petroleum plastic.
Currently, Yorkshire Tea bags are not biodegradable and should be thrown into the trash after use.
If they make the switch to bioplastics, the teabag will become 100% biodegradable and compostable. This means they should be placed into kerbside composting bins.
Your garden compost heap should be avoided as it won’t get hot enough to completely biodegrade each tea bag.
Are Yorkshire Tea Bag Packets Biodegradable?
Each packet is made from a petroleum oil-based plastic called polypropylene. Yorkshire Tea hope to completely remove the need for this plastic wrap in the near future.
This material isn’t currently recyclable or biodegradable.
Conclusion
Yorkshire Tea is not currently biodegradable but this may change in 2022 as the company uses new materials to improve sustainability.
