Of all the problems we face with our environmental impact/degradation, microplastics are a massive worry – both to the external world and our internal worlds. David Suzuki, the famed environmental scientist, estimates an adult aged 72 has accumulated about a kilo of weight in plastics inside of us and guess where our bodies store things like this to protect us? By making more fat tissue and tucking it away for us. A 2019 study out of Canada showed that steeping a single plastic-containing teabag at brewing temperature releases approximately 11.6 billion microplastics and 3.1 billion nano plastics into a single cup of tea.
Cup of tea at a conference or café where you’re not in control of the options, anyone? I’ll pass.
Plastics in terms of their effect on humans has been extensively researched in relation to fertility/endocrine disruption and obesity and it’s not good. So what do we do? We vote with our dollars and we write emails. This community has been doing that for 12 years now, and we’ve seen a lot of change in the food sector already, right?
The obvious choice from a wastage and plastic avoidance perspective is loose leaf but even then there is often packaging or shipping if you don’t have a local bulk store and I’m a big fan of people being able to make a positive change regardless of where you’re at and what sourcing constraints you might have at this point in time. Most of a plant’s impact happens before it leaves the farm gate (source: David Suzuki) so organic or biodynamic are huge wins overall. So here’s a plastic-free tea list of bags and loose to get to know some great new options out there.
Nerada Tea (note Nerada is nearly there on bags being plastic free so for that brand, it’s loose only for a little while longer)
Hope this is helpful and yay for a great cuppa. Feel free to let a buddy know about this list x
