Sustainability
At tea3, we strongly believe in promoting and participating in sustainable sourcing, commerce, and living. We source most of our fine tea from independent tea gardens, and provide packaging that is compostable or reusable whenever possible. As a small business, it is cost prohibitive to provide only 100% compostable packaging, but as we grow, we are working towards having every item that we send to our customers be plastic-free and either fully reusable (like our tea tins) or fully compostable (like our tea pouches). We are hoping to make the swap to fully reusable or compostable materials for 100% of our packaging and box materials within our first year, so your support means a lot to us as we work towards this goal.
At the moment, the following materials are 100% compostable in home and industrial composting facilities. We strongly encourage our customers to compost these when possible to reduce landfill waste.
- All tea pouches included in sampler and starter boxes
- Tamper-resistant shrink wrap on tea tins
- Packing paper
We also have some products that can be recycled but not composted. These include:
- Cardboard shipping boxes, sampler boxes, and starter boxes (note the tape and box is compostable, however, the brand sticker and shipping label is not)
- Cards included in sampler and starter boxes
Other packing materials, such as bubble wrap, that protect our breakable teawares are not compostable at this time, but you may be able to recycle these materials at specialty recycling centers. Plastic film products, including bubble wrap, can typically be recycled at grocery stores or similar centers that accept single-use grocery bags for recycling. We encourage you to check your local stores and either reuse or recycle these products where possible.
As we grow, we will update this page with progress we are making towards our goal of 100% compostable materials. Our near-term goals include sourcing compostable branding materials (including stickers) and switching to compostable cards within our boxes.