We love a good cup of tea at OneDey. Tea can be a boon for your health, the endless flavors ensure you never tire of the taste, and the cute tea sets keep us coming back for more.  If you’re a fellow tea fan, how do you make sure you have eco friendly tea?

We recently learned that most tea bags are made from micro plastics. Yes, those awful micro plastics that clog up nearly everything, from oceans to grocery stores.

So, what can we do about it? There are a few ways to make your tea more eco friendly, starting with the cup you’re drinking it in.

Drink from Sustainable Mugs

Of course, this one doesn’t only apply to tea. If you haven’t banished single use cups from your life, now’s the time. Each year, 500 billion disposable cups are thrown away. 500 billion. While paper cups aren’t perceived as being as problematic as styrofoam, most are covered in a plastic film that makes them unrecyclable.

Even if the paper cup figures don’t freak you out – why not spice up your afternoon brew with an adorable mug? Our cabinets are bursting with novelty mugs and pieces of usable art, and it makes tucking into an afternoon Rooibos even sweeter.

Use a Stainless Steel Tea Strainer or Tea Ball

When I’m not working at the office (yep, I still do that sometimes) on the go, I use either a stainless steel tea strainer or a stainless steel tea ball. This eliminates used tea bags and makes the next tip easy peasy.

Make Used Tea Your Sustainable Fertilizer

Loose leaf tea contains a lot of nutrients, including ones your flowers and plants love. Even if you don’t have a composting bin, just throwing your tea grounds in your flower bed will give your blossoms a pick-me-up.

Reuse Your Tea

There are many ways to reuse your tea bags, so many that we wrote a whole blog about it! Whether it’s stretching that bag to its last steep or treating your wooden furniture or bug bites, used tea bags could be the secret home improvement tool you’ve been looking for.

Tea tins can also come in handy. We’ve seen them used as planters, pen holders, and make-up brush organizers. We’re guessing that at least some of your tea stash was purchased because of the beautiful packaging. Why throw it in the recycle bin? Put it on display!

Buy Eco Friendly Tea

We now know that a lot of tea brands use micro plastics in their tea bags, so the quickest swap you can make in your tea consumption is to move to loose leaf tea. Organic tea is increasingly available at grocery stores. If it’s verified organic, it’s certainly a step above the rest environmentally. However, if you’re ready for a deeper dive into the world of sustainable tea, there are many brands that are going above and beyond in the world of tea making. Here’s a couple we love:

1. Arbor Teas

Arbor Teas makes loose leaf tea that’s both organic and fair trade. The tea is packaged in easy to compost cellulose packaging – even their labels are printed on hemp and sugar cane paper! Arbor Teas takes their sustainability commitment a large step further, offsetting all their carbon emissions with the carbon fund. Their blog will help you find even more ways to use their delicious tea leaves.

2. Yogi Tea

This accessible tea brand is found in many major grocery stores, and it’s very eco friendly! To begin, the Yogi Teas tea bags come in recyclable cardboard boxes printed with vegetable-based inks. Then… The wrapper around the tea bags? Compostable. The tea bag? Compostable. The yoga pose on each box? Adorable.

The actual tea is all organic, and almost all USDA certified organic. None of their teas have been genetically modified (GMO), so you can count on a great quality and sustainable tea from Yogi Teas.

3. T Project

If you’re looking for a small-batch, artisanal tea brand that’s ALSO sustainable, look no further than T Project. T Project teas are bagged in compostable, plant-based bags, the tins are made from 80% post consumer recycled paper, and each is made in a small-batch. Every tea is organic and T Project makes some interesting seasonal blends. Finally, each tea is named after a classic rock anthem, so you get a little nostalgia with your steaming mug.

Good to the Last Drop

There are many ways to improve the environmental impact of your tea drinking experience, from savoring the last use of your tea bag to swapping out your tea gear. No matter what, if you make tomorrow a little greener than ToDey, OneDey we won’t need to be concerned about the source of our tea or the compostability of its bag.