As public pressure grows, Clipper is latest brand to end use of plastic in teabags
The UK’s longest-established Fairtrade tea brand has become the latest to ditch synthetic sealants in its teabags, amid mounting consumer pressure on manufacturers to help cut down on plastic pollution. Clipper Teas – which champions the unbleached teabag – hopes to introduce a new, fully biodegradable bag free of polypropylene, a sealant used across the industry to ensure bags hold their shape, by the summer. Meanwhile a new national petition from the campaigning organisation 38 Degrees, calling on other brands to do the same, has attracted more than 125,000 signatures. Its first petition, directed at the UK’s largest tea brand, PG Tips, attracted 230,000 signatures in February – at which point it announced that its new eco-friendly pyramid teabags – made from a plant-based material that is 100% renewable and biodegradable – were about to go on sale in UK supermarkets.