Our products & plastics

Removing the plastic wrapping

We've started removing the plastic wrap from our Yorkshire Tea boxes

You might have spotted a change to some of our Yorkshire Tea boxes. We’ve started removing the plastic overwrap – and some of those new packs will be landing on shelves in May 2024.

We’ve been working on it for a while, as it’s a bit trickier than we first thought. That thin piece of material does lots of important stuff, like keeping the box secure, and slowing down and reducing moisture ingress which can make the tea taste funny.

So, we’ve been testing and researching (with the help of some of the companies we work with) to make sure we get it right. The last thing we’d want to do is affect the taste of your brew, give it a shorter shelf life or make boxes that aren’t fit for purpose.

But we reckon we’ve cracked it. The new boxes have an added inner lid, have fewer gaps, and still have a bit that works as a tamper seal (so you know nobody’s messed with them on the shelf). We’ve also got rid of the plastic bundle wrap that the boxes travel to the shops in, and because they don’t have all the plastic overwrap, they’re easily recyclable at home.

Plus, of course, the tea bags inside are plant-based too.

It’ll seem like a small change in the grand scheme of things, but it’s actually been a massive change to our factory in Harrogate, so we’re rolling it out bit by bit to make sure it’s right.

The first phase of products will be Yorkshire Gold 80s, Yorkshire Tea Decaf 80s, Yorkshire Tea for Hard Water 80s and price-marked packs of Yorkshire Tea 80s (those are the ones with a yellow bit in the corner saying what the price is). They’ll be landing in shops in May 2024. And as we roll out the changes to the rest of our products, we’ll keep you posted on our progress.

In the meantime, for boxes that still have plastic wrapping on them, you can take this, along with other flexible plastic like bread bags, frozen food bags and crisp packets to most supermarkets to be recycled.

To find your nearest participating supermarket just check out www​.recyclenow​.com/​r​e​p​e​a​t​thecy…

In the next few years more and more households will be able to recycle their plastic bags and wrapping at home, but in the meantime many major supermarkets now have easy collection points to drop off your flexible plastics so you know it’ll get recycled. 

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