- Products & packaging
- >Our products and plastics
What are we doing about the plastics in our products?
We know the mismanagement of plastics is having a negative impact on our planet and we want to do what we can to change that.
Circularity in our packaging is a key ambition for us – we want resources to be used again and again. To us, this means that our packaging should ultimately be made from circular sources, such as renewable, plant-based or recycled materials. It should also be circular after use — meaning reusable, recyclable or compostable. We know we have a way to go, but our teams are working hard to reach this circular ambition.
What’s happening at Taylors?
Plastic is something which is getting a lot of focus worldwide, and here at Taylors. We’ve put a lot of work into evaluating where we use plastic and why. Where we don’t need to use plastic, we’re looking at the alternatives, being mindful of the impact different materials can have on the carbon footprint. And where we see plastic as the only option, we want to move away from oil-based to plant-based or recycled plastics.
Making these changes takes time though, and sometimes we’re waiting for the perfect packaging material to become available to that we can ensure our products reach you safely at the quality you’d expect.
The Plastics Pact
In 2018 we signed up to the UK Plastics Pact which means we have targets to eliminate unnecessary plastic, increase the use of recycled plastic, and make all plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
We’re making good progress against these targets but there’s still lots of work for us to do. In 2018 there was around 780 tonnes of plastic in the packaging of products we sold. Over one third of this was in tea bag paper which is why moving from bags containing a polypropylene (PP) seal to ones containing a renewable, plant-based alternative — polylactic acid (PLA) — is number one on our priority list.
Our priorities
All of our products contain some level of plastic. Because one third of this sits with tea bags, we’ve addressed this area first and foremost. However, that doesn’t mean to say we’re not working on other areas of our portfolio as well. Our Research and Development team are working hard to make changes to five items of packaging that we believe need addressing as a priority.
1. Tea bags
2. Tea box overwrap
3. Coffee bag envelopes
4. Coffee film (Ground and Beans)
5. Loose leaf tea film
This will take time. We’re working towards the ambition of achieving the Plastics Pact targets by 2025, but with any luck we’ll have this done sooner and we’ll be keeping you updated along the way.
What’s taking so long?
It may seem simple and you probably think that because we’re quite a big company we should be able to switch these things out quickly and easily. Sadly that’s just not the case. The process to roll out packaging that balances our commitment to quality with our environmental impact is tricky. For example, to move away from overwrap we need to trial a new type of tea box with a different kind of board to ensure that the tea bags inside are still well protected.
We also have a large operations set up in our factory at Harrogate, which allows us to produce the volume of tea and coffee we need. However, this also means that adding new materials to the mix requires big changes. For example, we’ve found our teabag machines need to work very differently if we want them to seal our teabags with PLA. We’ve tried refurbishing our machines, slowing them down, adjusting temperatures and putting the finished tea bags through multiple tests. Getting it right is taking time — but we’re determined to do all we can to make this important change.
The end of Capsules
We knew that a tricky product to tackle would be our coffee capsules, and we’ve spent time looking at alternative materials to our plastic pods.
There are a few alternatives that are currently being used by other companies — things like compostable, aluminium and refillable capsules. After much deliberation we decided that aluminium was the best option for our product in terms of keeping quality and freshness, but we still had questions over the recycling of this material.
If aluminium is recycled, it is the best material to use from a carbon footprint perspective; but if it ends up in landfill or incinerated, it has the worst carbon footprint. Recycle rates on capsules made from aluminium are very low at around 25%, and we weren’t confident this was a good enough alternative if it wasn’t being disposed of correctly.
After reviewing all of our options and due to multiple factors, we’ve decided to completely withdraw from capsules. We loved this product, but we know it’s not the right way to move forward, so from January 2020 we will no longer be producing capsules.
We’ll be making much progress with our packaging in the coming months, so we’re going to keep you updated with news of where how we’re doing. In the meantime, if you want to know more about recycling our packaging, you can take a look at our how to recycle section for tips and pointers.