Plastic free tea A few minutes with Louise Cheadle – co-founder What made you decide to use plastic-free packaging? We have had lots of concerned customers contacting us over the last few months and were happy to put their minds at ease: our tea “temples” have never contained plastic but there are lots of elements that make up our packaging and it can be quite confusing to know what to do with it all because it can depend on local recycling facilities too. There are things that we think we are doing well and things that we certainly need to work on, but in the interest of full transparency we have published details of all the packaging used throughout our product range. 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. This is why it’s so great to be accredited with A Plastic Planet’s Plastic-Free Trust Mark as well as working together with organisations like The Rainforest Association and the Sustainable Restaurant Association to keep developing our sustainability program and informing our customers. The food and drink industry in general has a responsibility to move away from the use of unrecyclable plastic and to ensure that its production practices are sustainable in the long-term. We’re happy that the majority of the packaging we use can be safely reused, recycled or composted but we recognise that the packaging from our loose tea pouches and matcha sachets needs to be improved. All the materials used are technically recyclable but – because they are composites – they need to be separated to be recycled which many councils can’t facilitate. We’re working on new packaging for these two products and hope to roll it out within the coming months. We’ve upped the focus on sustainability over the last year and now have a team of teapigs working hard on this.
28 The Delicatessen Magazine
What are your thoughts on the use of plastic packaging in this sector? The consumer awareness surrounding plastic and the harmful effect that this has on our environment is a hot topic internationally. We have seen this especially within Scandinavia. In fact, earlier this year Dutch supermarket chain Ekoplaza introduced the ‘world first’ plastic-free supermarket aisle in partnership with A Plastic Planet. Many of our international accounts have stressed that plastic-free and sustainability is becoming a key decider when picking the brands they stock. Unfortunately there are still some countries where this matter is not as high on their agenda. In the UK, we’ve really got to thank the great Sir David Attenborough and the recent Blue Planet programme for bringing this topic even further into the public eye. He’s a real national treasure! It can be frightening to see just how much single-use plastic is used in tea and food and drink in general. In some cases, this is avoidable and change needs to happen fast. In other cases, keeping food and drink fresh, convenient and safe to use whilst protecting the planet can be a challenge. Alternative solutions to plastic have their challenges too and the recycling industry itself also needs to develop faster to be able to process more eco-friendly plastic material alternatives. But we do have a big responsibility to the right thing by the environment – single-use plastic reduction is just a part of this – and to help consumers make the right choices when disposing of packaging. Out of all the wonderful flavours you create - what is your favourite and the biggest hit with your customers? While traditional black teas will always be popular, we are seeing
some changes. More and more consumers are looking for drinks that give them specific health benefits and demand for healthy green and herbal teas is growing. My fave tea at the moment is teapigs’ tung ting oolong – tasting oolong in the hills of Taiwan is a special experience and the tea to go with it is delicious. Halfway between green and black tea, this tea has both strength and flavour (no milk!).
What makes teapigs different? We believe in something very simple – no airs, no graces, just fine tea. Basically, we love tea but didn’t like the snobbery that can come with it. Instead we concentrate on bringing the very best tea we can find and not taking ourselves too seriously. Our range is unrivalled with over 34 whole leaf teas and herbal infusions. The teas really pack a punch too. Real, whole ingredients mean big flavour. Lots of people drink green and herbal teas because they’re healthy but often aren’t keen on the taste. So many people tell us they buy our teas because they taste as good as they smell. We’ve won over 80 great tastes awards over time – our mums are very proud. Lastly, we’re committed to being the greenest tea company out there and we work extra hard to support the communities that bring us our tea. We make a donation to the Point Foundation charity in Rwanda with every pack of everyday brew we sell (the majority of tea in the blend is sourced from Rwanda!) and we match donations our customers make online. The money raised improves the lives of vulnerable young people in the area and we’ve raised over £240k so far. Several teapigs also ran last year’s Tough Mudder race to raise more money, which was an incredible (if muddy) experience!