Australian brand Nerada Tea has already embraced the trend towards plastic-free by releasing its most popular leaf-tea product in a cardboard packet, with a spout that opens to pour.
Now, the company says it is also trialling a 100-per-cent plastic-free paper for its tagless pot bags which it hopes will go into production by the end of this year. And plastic-free tea bags are also under development with Nerada hoping it can release them within the next year.
The recycled-cardboard box with a pop-out pour spout has a recommended retail price of A$3.30 (US$2.47). The package has no inner liner or external wrapping.
Nerada Tea owns Australia’s largest tea estate, a 360ha property in Queensland, and has been producing the beverage since the late 1960s. It processes about 6 million kilograms of fresh tea leaves annually to create about 1.5 million kilograms of black tea – that’s about 750 million cups, or 9000 per hour.
Three years ago the company received Rainforest Alliance Certification for the pesticide-free black tea, the first and only Australian agricultural entity to be awarded such certification.
News of the new packaging and tea bag solutions coincides with Plastic Free July, a global event that has inspired more than 326 million consumers across 177 countries since its launch in 2010.
Many FMCG companies in Australia are switching from cardboard to plastic in their packaging – Tip Top last year phased out 11 million plastic bread-bag fasteners replacing them with cardboard paper alternatives from late last year.
