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What goes into our packaging?
We want our environmental impact to be positive - and part of this is making our packaging as recyclable, reusable and compostable as possible. Here's what our packs are made of at the moment and what we're planning for the future.
Yorkshire Tea box
The box
Yorkshire Tea boxes are made from cartonboard, which is a renewable resource as trees can easily be replenished.
This goes in your paper and cardboard recycling.
The tea bags
The bags in all our regular UK Yorkshire Tea boxes are now plant based. Most of the bag is made from natural fibres like wood pulp and the seal is made with PLA - an industrially compostable, plant-based plastic which is much better for the environment when it's properly disposed of. You can find out more about our switch to plant-based tea bags here.
Please pop these in your kerbside garden or food waste bin. These don’t go in your home compost heap as they need quite a bit of heat and space to break down.
The outer wrap
This is made from oil-based plastic (polypropylene) - and it's the next thing we want to change after our tea bags.
This isn't currently recyclable, so it should go in your normal bin or you can take it to some supermarket collection points.
Bulk bags
The pack
Our biggest packs are made from polyester and polyethylene. We'd like to change this packaging once we've completed our tea bag material switch and changed the outer wrap on our tea boxes (both of which involve a higher overall volume of plastic).
This isn't currently recyclable, so it should go in your refuse bin.
The tea bags
75% of our tea bag material is natural-based fibres: a mix of wood pulp and either abaca (a kind of banana plant) or rayon (made from woodpulp). 25% is an oil-based plastic sealing material called polypropylene, but we're working on a switch to a renewable, plant-based, industrially compostable bioplastic called Polylactic Acid (PLA), which is made from cornstarch.
At the moment, these should go in your refuse bin. After the switch to PLA, they should go in kerbside composting bins (garden waste or food waste). They're not suitable for home compost heaps because they won't get hot enough to break down.
Loose leaf
The pack
Our loose tea packs are made from a triple-layered mix of oil-based plastics, metallised polyester, polypropylene and polyethylene. We'd like to change this packaging once we've completed our tea bag material switch and removed the outer wrap on our tea boxes (both of which involve a higher overall volume of plastic).
This isn't currently recyclable, so it should go in your refuse bin.
Speciality brews
The box
Yorkshire Tea boxes are made from cartonboard, which is a renewable resource as trees can easily be replenished.
This goes in your paper and cardboard recycling.
The tea bags
75% of our tea bag material is natural-based fibres: a mix of wood pulp and either abaca (a kind of banana plant) or rayon (made from woodpulp). 25% is an oil-based plastic sealing material called polypropylene, but we're working on a switch to a renewable, plant-based, industrially compostable bioplastic called Polylactic Acid (PLA), which is made from cornstarch.
At the moment, these should go in your refuse bin. After the switch to PLA, they should go in kerbside composting bins (garden waste or food waste). They're not suitable for home compost heaps because they won't get hot enough to break down.
The inner wrap
The inner wrap is made from metallised polyethylene (an oil-based plastic). We'd like to change this packaging once we've completed our tea bag material switch and changed the outer wrap on our tea boxes (both of which involve a higher overall volume of plastic).
This isn't currently recyclable, so it should go in your refuse bin.
Takeaway cups
Our cups are made from paper and lined with a renewable, plant-based bioplastic called Polylactic Acid (PLA) on the inside, which keeps the tea in. They're industrially compostable and we provide dedicated bins for them at events we run.
Disposal of compostable cups is complex at the moment. They're not certified as home compostable and shouldn't go in food waste or garden waste bins because they look like standard takeaway cups (which contain oil-based plastic and aren't compostable) so are often removed during processing. So right now they're best collected on their own in dedicated bins, which we provide at events we run. If there isn’t a dedicated bin to put them in, the best place to put them is in a refuse bin.
