Want to know which teabags without plastic exist in the UK in 2026? Look no further – I’ve rounded up the best eco-friendly and sustainable plastic-free tea bags out there right now. I’ve also shared the teabags with plastic, to help you avoid unexpected plastic in your beverages.

Back in 2017, I wrote about the surprising hidden plastic in teabags. Teabags that many of us were composting in our gardens or via our kerbside food waste pickup. That post had such an impact as many people learned for the first time that teabags contain plastic, alongside a host of other surprising items that contain plastic.

Since then, I’ve been keeping tabs to see where the tea industry is currently at in reducing plastic from the nation’s favourite drink.

As such, I’ve looked into over 20 teabag brands in the UK, to see what teabags without plastic are available. I’ve also looked into how best to dispose of the bags once you’re done.

Why Do Teabags Contain Plastic?

You might be wondering why there is a need for plastic to be found in teabags. Well, plastic (polypropylene to be exact) is added to the paper teabag to help heat seal them during manufacture. 

Heat sealing the bags like this means that the teabags won’t come open in the box, or your cup. It also means that these tea bags aren’t 100% biodegradable. This is a problem in that those tea bags you are composting are leaving bits of microplastic in the soil.

What Is Microplastic?

Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic, less than 5 mm long. Although we can’t see most microplastic particles, it’s a huge problem, that is still being understood by scientists today.

What we know is that microplastics are found in the soil, in the sea, in our drinking water, inside fish and other animals we eat, and even in humans. When microplastics are in the food we eat and the water we drink, this means we are ingesting plastic, and the long-term effects of this are currently unknown.

Microplastic comes from a variety of sources. It can derive from larger plastic debris that has degraded into smaller and smaller pieces. However, it also comes from teabags that have been heat-sealed with plastic, that we have unwittingly composted.

How much damage can a teabag do, you may be wondering? Well, one teabag alone will do very little damage. However, when you consider that in the UK alone we drink more than 60 billion cups of tea a year, then it’s a lot of teabags and a whole lot more microplastic.

The good news is that since 2017 tea manufacturers have started to remove polypropylene from their teabags.

Teabag Terminology

Before we dive in, let me get you up to speed on some of the terminologies around teabags.

Types of Teabags

First off, you’ll see some discussion around types of teabags. Here is a visual guide to the types of teabags referred to in this guide.

What About PLA Teabags?

In this guide to teabags without plastic, you’ll see a lot of discussion around PLA. PLA stands for Polylactic Acid. PLA teabags are technically not plastic-free, as they are made from plant-based plastics. It is often referred to as a bio-plastic. This simply means the plastic does not come from a fossil fuel-based source.

There are some issues around PLA. Firstly, sometimes the plant material used to produce PLA can be sourced from genetically modified (GM) crops.

Secondly, PLA tea bags are not home-compostable. It’s therefore important to dispose of them correctly. If your local council collects your food waste or garden waste bin for industrial composting, they will compost quickly. However, if your council does not collect your food waste, then these teabags perform no differently than conventional oil-based plastic tea bags.

If you don’t have access to council food waste collections, then to dispose of PLA teabags it is best to tear open the bag to allow you to compost the tea leaves in your garden. Then put the teabag in with your general waste.

If you want to know more, do read my guide on what is PLA and is it biodegradable for a more detailed deep dive.

I don’t think PLA is a perfect solution. Like many aspects of sustainability, there are always compromises. However, aside from switching to loose-leaf tea en masse, I don’t think there is a perfect solution that could also make tea an affordable daily staple.

The Plastic-Free Teabags In 2026

Here is the current situation plastic-free tea bag situation right now in the UK (updated January 2026), with notes on what each tea bag is made of, how to dispose of each brand’s teabags, and if the brand offers loose-leaf tea.

Given that PLA tea bags technically are not plastic-free, I’ve clearly outlined what each brand’s teabags are made from. As such for each brand you’ll see text that says “made of PLA” or “PLA-free” to help you make informed purchasing decisions.

Aldi

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

Aldi’s teabags are now plastic-free. In June 2021, Aldi confirmed it was removing single-use plastic from its own-brand range of teabags. We’re pleased to see that this has now rolled out across the country. Now all of Aldi’s own brand tea – including decaffeinated, and fruit and herbal infusions are made from PLA – so are industrially compostable.

Asda

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

In October 2022 Asda announced that all of its own brand teabags – including the Just Essentials and Extra Special ranges – will be made from industrially compostable PLA. Asda says “Tea is a staple in most customer’s households so for us to make a change which can make such a difference is a big moment for us.”

Bird & Blend Tea

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

Brighton-based Bird & Blend sells its hand-blended teas in PLA teabags. Or if you want to avoid PLA you can shop for loose-leaf tea. Alongside its standard black teas, the main area where Bird & Blend excels is in its unique tea blends. Think Rhubarb & Custard, or Chocolate Digestive flavoured tea for something a little different.

Brew Tea

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

As well as its tasty loose-leaf tea selection, Brew Tea swapped over to PLA teabags in September 2017. Brew Tea then moved over to plastic-free packaging in 2018. Black tea is Brew Tea’s speciality, but it does carry a small range of fruit and herbal teas.

Clipper

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | String and tag teabags home compostable

Back in 2017, people were most shocked by the fact that Clipper’s unbleached organic teabags contained plastic. Thanks to consumer demand, Clipper took action, and switched its pillow teabags to a plant-based PLA several years ago, sourced from non-GM plant material.

Co-Op Own Brand 99

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin

Thanks to consumer pressure, The Co-Op switched its own-brand Fairtrade 99 tea over to PLA teabags in 2018. These are now made without polypropylene.

Dragonfly

PLA-free and made of PLA options available | Disposal dependent on the type of teabags you buy | Loose leaf tea selection available

Dragonfly Tea makes two different types of tea bags. Its string and tag bags are 100% plastic-free. Rather than being heat-sealed, they are folded and stitched with an organic cotton string, and can be composted at home. Meanwhile, its pillow teabags are made from PLA and should be disposed of in your food waste bin.

Eteaket

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

Edinburgh-based Eteaket mainly sells loose-leaf tea. This is packaged in home compostable Natureflex™ bags and cardboard caddies. Its tea is not the cheapest. However, if you already have a caddy, then their loose-leaf tea is also available in 100% plastic-free refill bags, which are a little cheaper.

Whilst its range of teabags is small, all Eteakat tea bags are made from PLA. These are packed into home compostable Natureflex™ bags, and recyclable cardboard cartons for a smaller carbon footprint.

Good & Proper

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

Good & Proper’s range of award-winning teas – from its black teas to its range of herbal infusions – come in PLA teabags. If you want to avoid PLA, you can also shop for a wide range of tasty loose-leaf teas.

Hampstead Tea

Mostly PLA-Free – made from unbleached paper | Home compostable or can go in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

Hampstead Tea has a long history of sustainability. It was the first tea manufacturer to introduce stitched teabags rather than heat-sealed teabags. As such, its teabags have always been home-compostable.

Rather than resting on its laurels, Hampstead Tea has taken big steps when it comes to the environment. Consequently, the vast majority of its products are plastic-free (aside from its Earl Grey and Green Tea with Jasmine tea bag envelopes – apparently the bergamot oil they use in these teas requires a thin layer of plastic to act as a barrier).

Higher Living Tea

PLA-Free | Home compostable or can go in your food waste bin

Higher Living’s teabags are of the string and tag variety. They’re made from unbleached paper, and are sealed with an organic cotton string stitched into the paper for a proper plastic-free cuppa. There’s even an oddly fascinating video showing you how they are made.

Lidl

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin

Lidl finally announced in August 2023 that it would be switching from plastic tea bags to compostable ones after a long period of inaction.

Marks & Spencer

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

Marks & Spencer quietly switched its teabags over to PLA in 2023, with very little fanfare. I think it’s because M&S issued a press release way back in 2018, saying that it was taking a “razor-sharp look at how we use plastics” and that “we’re taking plastics out of all 450 million teabags we sell“.

Despite the fact that it took six years, I am genuinely pleased to see that M&S’s teas are now industrially compostable.

Morrisons

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

Another straggler, I’m pleased to finally report that Morrisons own-brand tea is now plastic-free. Morrisons says they sold 331 million plastic tea bags a year, so this is a great step forward.

Neal’s Yard

PLA-Free – made from abaca natural fibres | Home compostable or can go in your food waste bin

Neal’s Yard 100% organic and eco-friendly tea bags are FairWild™ certified. This is an international standard that supports the sustainable use of wild-harvested ingredients. It also ensures a fair deal all along the supply chain.

Neal’s Yard PLA-free teabags are made from natural abaca (a plant from the banana family) and are oxygen-bleached. This method is chlorine-free and kind to the environment. As such these plastic-free teabags can go straight into your home composter.

Nemi

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

Nemi is a specialist London-based tea company that offers a variety of tea blends, both as loose tea and teabags. As well as selling great-tasting tea, Nemi provides employment to refugees to give them local work experience and job readiness skills to enter the UK workforce and to help them integrate into broader society.

All of Nemi’s teabags are made from PLA. Moreover, its packaging is compostable, and its teas are organic, fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance certified. The packaging is pretty funky too.

Nuditea

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

Nuditea makes speciality tea in the UK, with blends are sourced from trusted smallholders for exceptional flavour, sustainability and quality. It has a lovely selection of looseleaf and bagged teas – my favourite is the rooibos tea. So tasty!

NutraTea

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin

Independent and family-run brand NutraTea make all of its tasty teas from PLA. Find all sorts of unique flavours – from elderflower and echinacea to pine needle and rosehip.

PG Tips

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

PG Tips made the switch to PLA a couple of years ago thanks to consumer pressure. Now its entire range can be industrially composted via your food waste bin.

Pukka

PLA-Free – made from natural abaca fibre | Home compostable or can go in your food waste bin

Pukka makes organic and fairly sourced herbal teas. Its string and tag teabags have always been plastic and PLA-free. However, each individual bag used to come wrapped in an unrecyclable plastic-lined envelope. The good news is that Pukka has taken its environmental responsibilities seriously, and now uses widely recyclable envelopes. 

Punjana

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

I reached out to Punjana in November 2024, and they told me “Last year, and after extensive trials, we took the decision to make the change to 100% plant-based tea bag paper and they are sealed using corn starch, as part of our on-going commitment to the environment. Although there is a very slight change to the appearance of the paper, the brew performance remains unchanged and, importantly, our relationship with the environment is enhanced, and therefore can be recycled in your food-waste bin. On the topic of home composting, we would recommend that tea bags are put in the brown bin for industrial composting.”

Ringtons (with the exception of its organic teas)

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

Ringtons says that its teabags are compostable with the exception of Ringtons Organic. These are still heat-sealed with plastic, and are not compostable.

Roqberry

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin

Roqberry’s flavourful fruit and herbal infusions come in PLA plastic-based pyramids. From banana-flavoured tea to blueberry, these unique tea blends tread lightly on the planet.

Sainsbury’s

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

I added Sainsbury’s to this plastic-free teabag list in August 2021. After news that from summer 2021 Sainsbury’s own-brand teabags will be plastic-free, as part of its ongoing commitment to halve plastic packaging by 2025, this finally rolled out in-store in August 2021.

The tea bags are made from PLA and are industrially compostable. What I also like is that the packaging is completely plastic-free too. The box isn’t wrapped in plastic, and nor is there a plastic foil bag inside the box. Accessible plastic-free tea for the win!

Suki Tea

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

Based in Belfast, Suki Tea ethically sources and blends loose-leaf teas, herbal infusions and fruit blends from all over the world. Suki Tea is best known for its tasty loose-leaf tea, however, it does have a selection of PLA-based pyramid teabags.

T2

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

Australian brand T2 is perhaps best known for its loose-leaf tea selection. However, its range of pyramid teabags are made from PLA for a more sustainable cup of tea. It used to have a selection of stores in the UK, but now it seems it is online only.

Teapigs

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin

Tata-owned Teapigs have always made teabags without fossil fuel-based plastic – its tasty tea pyramids have always been PLA-based. However, Teapigs didn’t stop there. A few years ago the brand also switched the plastic inner bag to a home compostable bag.

Tesco

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

Tesco finally switched over to plastic-free teabags in 2023. This means all of Tesco’s own-brand black teas, herbal teas and speciality teas will be compostable. Plus, in a bold commitment, all of the billion tea bags sold by Tesco – own-brand and branded – are compostable through council food waste collections. 

Tetley

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

Tetley had been saying for years that they are currently in the process of switching from plastic heat-sealed teabags. Up until the end of 2024 its website said: “With 9 million (teabags) to convert, we can’t change all of our bags at once, but we’re starting with our big sellers of lovely Tetley Original 120s and 240s“. 

Tetley had been saying this for a very long time, and so I was overjoyed when I noticed in early 2025 that the boxes in my local supermarket have now all switched to PLA-based bags across all box sizes. Double-check before you buy, but I reckon if my small town supermarket in central Scotland sells them then yours probably does too!

Tick Tock Tea

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

Tick Tock’s range of naturally decaffeinated rooibos teas is available in both PLA teabags and in loose-leaf formats. Packaging-wise, the inner pouch of its Cold Brew Rooibos tea range can be composted via industrial composting facilities, and the pouches of all other Tick Tock teas are recyclable at large supermarkets.

Twinings

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

I’m delighted to report that Twinings have made the switch to plastic-free teabags. A spokesperson from Twinings said “We are pleased to say that all of the teabags we produce use plant-based biodegradable materials, from our black teas to our wide range of wellbeing blends. The material we use for our teabags will break down fully if placed into a local authority compost caddy or food waste bin.”

Twist Teas

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

Twist Tea’s range of fruit, herbal and black teas are available in loose-leaf and PLA pyramid teabag formats.

Waitrose

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

Despite multiple emails, I had no luck getting in touch with Waitrose about its teas – so I had them on the list of potentially containing plastic.

The good news is that a Moral Fibres reader was able to get in touch with them (thanks Paul!), and received the following response from Waitrose on 1st August 2025: “I can confirm we have changed the plastic adhesive in all of our own brand Waitrose tea bags to a plant-based alternative (PLA). This means all Waitrose Tea Bags can be disposed of in food waste bins or composted by our customers“.

Yogi Tea

PLA-Free – made from natural abaca fibre | Home compostable or can go in your food waste bin

American herbal tea brand Yogi is doing all the right things. Its string and tag teabags are made from abaca plant fibres, a species of banana native to South East Asia. The string attached to the teabag is made from certified organic cotton and the label is made from paper from sustainably managed forests. This means it’s completely free from plastic, and can go in your home compost bin.

The brand may be American, but I’ve found Yogi tea in various places in the UK. This includes Ethical Superstore and Holland & Barrett.

Yorkshire Tea

Made of PLA | Place in your food waste bin | Loose leaf tea selection available

Yorkshire Tea – including regular Yorkshire Tea, Yorkshire Gold, Yorkshire Tea Decaf and Yorkshire Tea for Hard Water – have, since September 2021, been manufactured from PLA.

Yorkshire Tea also says “All our products are now carbon neutral, and what we want next is for all our packaging to be “circular” – which means made from renewable, plant-based or recycled materials, and reusable, recyclable or compostable after use“.

Which Teabags Do Contain Plastic?

Whilst most tea companies have made the switch away from polypropylene, there are some teabags that still contain plastic. These include the following brands:

Taylors of Harrogate

I reached out to Taylors of Harrogate in October 2024 and whilst Yorkshire Tea is plastic-free, they confirmed their Speciality Teas are heat sealed with polypropylene plastic.

They told me “We haven’t changed these tea bags over to our new polylactic acid (PLA), fully plant-based paper yet because these tea bags are a different shape and construction to our regular tea bags and they’re made on their own special machines which take a lot longer to reconfigure for PLA paper. We’ve had a bit of trouble changing these machines over to make suitable bags out of the plant-based paper.
 
In addition, many of the Taylors of Harrogate speciality tea bags we make are exported and we make a commitment that our international packs are GMO free, something that’s important to consumers and retailers in many of our International markets. We need to engineer a plant-based tea bag that also qualifies as GMO free. This is a very difficult scientific task and contributes to the different time-scale of switch to PLA for our export tea in comparison with our UK Yorkshire Tea. We are currently working on this with our tea bag paper suppliers and we’re hoping to get the go-ahead to start testing it to see if it’s suitable at some point next year.”

It’s sounded like quite the process, so I haven’t been back in touch since. However, I plan on reaching out to Taylors very soon to see if this situation has changed in 2026.

The Best Way To Avoid Plastic In Your Tea

Given that PLA is still technically a plastic, and most brands use PLA, the very best way (and most affordable way) to avoid microplastics is to buy loose leaf tea. You can then use a metal strainer, or a teapot with an inbuilt metal strainer to avoid getting leaves in your cup.

What To Do If Your Tea Brand Of Choice Isn’t Mentioned Here

If your tea manufacturer of choice isn’t mentioned here, then I recommend dropping them an email them or contacting them on social media to ask about their teabags. They may also have an FAQ or sustainability page on their website, that should contain the information you are looking for.

Phew, that was a long one! Time to put the kettle on for a plastic-free cuppa I think! If you’ve enjoyed this, then do also check out my guide to the best oat milk. I’ve looked into all sorts of ethics behind the most popular oat milk brands in the UK and uncovered all sorts of murky things.

Wendy Graham