As of 1 January, all tea bags across the Netherlands are fully compostable and can be thrown away in the vegetable, fruit and garden waste container. This will add tens of millions of kilos of compost on an annual basis, the industry expects.
Elsewhere, in the UK, Waitrose is now selling its own-brand tea bags in certified home-compostable packaging in a move aimed at keeping 12.2 tons of material out of landfill and incineration. The tags attached to the tea bags have also been redesigned to cut down on the amount of ink used and encourage a more effective decomposition process.
Tesco announced that all of its own brand teabags will be compostable by April, more than a billion bags a year. The plastic, polypropylene, of the bags has been replaced with a plant-based alternative.