22 THE WORLD OF HOSPITALITY
EUROPEAN COFFEE SHOW PREVIEW
Tea company, teapigs, first tea company
to be awarded Plastic-Free Trust Mark
Teapigs
Consumers have recently learned that many
of the UK’s teabags contain plastic. Since the
news broke earlier this year, we have learned
that major teabag companies are pledging to
eliminate plastic from their teabags within
the coming year.
Pioneering tea brand, teapigs’ range of
whole leaf tea temples are ALREADY plastic
free and they are the first tea brand to be
awarded the Plastic-Free Trust Mark by A
Plastic Planet.
“Our tea temples have always been
biodegradable. They’re made from corn-
starch and you can put them in your council
food waste bins. Our temples are packaged in
a clear inner bag to keep them fresh: late last
year, we switched from a plastic inner bag
to a material called Natureflex – it’s made
from wood pulp so it’s 100% plant-based and
compostable. It’s great!” says Louise Cheadle,
teapigs’ tea taster.
“We’ve always tried to do the right thing
and made these greener changes to our
packaging as soon as they were available to
us despite the increased cost. The recent
news that most teabags contain plastic has
really surprised consumers and we’ve had
a big wave of concerned customers asking
us for more information.” It was recently
announced that 96% of the nation’s teabags
contain plastic.
“We’re really pleased to have been accredited
with A Plastic Planet’s Plastic-Free Trust Mark
– it’ll make it easier for consumers to make
the right decisions about the products they
buy – there are so many logos on packaging
these days and it can be confusing to know
what they actually mean”.
The A Plastic Planet Trust Mark was launched
on 16th May 2018. Designed to sit clearly
on the front of the pack, the Trust Mark will
instantly inform and empower consumers
to make plastic-free choices. The confusion
around different logos and abundance of
plastic packaging in the supermarkets means
that those with innovative packaging will be
WEBSITE: www.teapigs.co.uk
nice and easy to spot.
Trust Mark-accredited packaging will include
materials such as carton board, wood pulp,
glass, metal and certified-compostable
biomaterials.
A Plastic Planet Co-Founder Sian Sutherland
said: “Now we all know the damage our
addiction to plastic has caused, we want
to do the right thing and buy plastic-free.
But it is harder than you think and a clear
no-nonsense label is much needed. Our Trust
Mark cuts through the confusion of symbols
and labels and tells you just one thing –
this packaging is plastic-free and therefore
guilt-free. Finally shoppers can be part of the
solution not the problem.”
teapigs are committed to being the UK’s
greenest tea company. The cardboard across
their whole range is FSC certified and they
print using vegetable ink. Their signature
everyday brew is 100% Rainforest Alliance
Certified and they are an approved member
of the Sustainable Restaurant Association.