A warm cup of tea is a great way to unwind at the end of a busy day or school night. One Reddit user was shocked to find that their box of tea bags from Aldi had the bags individually wrapped in — you guessed it — plastic.
The user's concern can be illustrated best by a tweet on X, formerly known as Twitter, showing the Benner brand's plastic-wrapped green tea bags and box, which the Reddit user said was the "only green tea available" at their Aldi store.
Several users in the Reddit comments section hypothesized that wrapping the bags individually could cut down on waste and keep the bags fresher for longer. But another user pushed back, saying, "I've bought 100 packs of teabags that don't even have paper wrapping and they were totally fine."
.@AldiUSA, will you please rethink the plastic wrappers on your Benner green tea bags? The English breakfast black tea isn't wrapped in plastic. (Next time I'll opt for loose leaf tea if it's carried in store) #PlasticFreeJuly pic.twitter.com/doNrF6zvbH
— Jess Nguyen (@uncannyxjess) July 30, 2020
Another user on X acknowledged that it's good that Benner does not use staples in its tea bags but also criticized the wasteful plastic wrapping back in 2018.
Single-use plastics are problematic for many reasons. They pile up in our trash cans and are then moved to landfills where they wait out the rest of their life cycle, eventually breaking down into microplastics or being eaten by wildlife.
Besides being affordable and a more sustainable way to sip your favorite warm beverage, using loose leaf tea bags also curbs your exposure to microplastics and toxins. According to one study, one plastic tea bag can release 11.6 billion microplastics into a cup, which make their way into our bodies and tissues.
The effects of this microplastic consumption is grim, but also not fully understood. Metals like lead and aluminum have also been found in many tea bags, which have the potential to cause neurodegenerative problems and other health complications.
Instead of purchasing individually wrapped tea bags, tea aficionados can opt for loose leaf tea. When they're craving a cup, the leaves can be added to a reusable tea trap or container, which can be rinsed and reused time and again.
Other users were dismayed at the choice in plastic wrapping. "I don't think I've ever seen tea bags wrapped in plastic before lol. Paper, yes. But never plastic. How stupid," one user exclaimed.
"I don't understand that at all," another wrote.
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