Bigelow Tea Bag Paper Contains No Plastic And Are Biodegradable and Compostable

February 12, 2026

All Bigelow tea bags are biodegradable, compostable, and contain no plastic. We use an environmentally friendly process of oxygen and peroxide to clean the teabag fibers. We do not use elemental chlorine. This process is important to ensure our teabags are clean, neutral, and free of residues such as elemental chlorine and dioxin.

Our Tea Bag Materials

Bigelow Tea produces over 2.2 billion tea bags annually in three U.S. manufacturing facilities.

Non-Heat Seal Paper (approximately 90.0% of tea bags sold)

• Wood pulp and abaca fiber
• Machine-folded and sealed requiring no adhesives
• Used in 8-, 18-, 20-, 28, 60, 80, and 100 tea bags count boxes
• Contains no plastic

Heat Seal Paper (approximately 10.0% of tea bags sold)

• Wood pulp and plant-based starches derived from corn and sugarcane
• Used in 40-count boxes, 140+ count Club, Premium Ceylon
• Contains no plastic

Heat Seal Paper (approximately 0.2% of tea bags sold)

·         Plant based starches derived from corn and sugarcane

·         Used in Pyramid tea bags in our Steep Café and Charleston Tea Garden lines

·         Contains no plastic

Our Teabag Papers Used

For over 90% of teabags sold from Bigelow Tea, we use a non-heat seal tea bag paper from the same global supplier as Traditional Medicinals. Similar to Bigelow Tea and Traditional Medicinals, almost all tea bag companies in the USA produce non-heat seal tea bags made of wood pulp and abaca.

For less than 10% of our teabags sold in the U.S., Bigelow Tea uses a heat seal paper that contains no plastic. The sealant used is made from plant-based starches such as corn and sugar cane. Bigelow Tea as well as most tea companies converted to plant-based sealants almost a decade ago, recognizing the need to move away from any kind of sealant that was not plastic-free.

Addressing Misconceptions About Recent Studies

Studies from McGill University and researchers in Barcelona have often been misconstrued in online discussions about plastic in tea bags. These papers examined tea bag materials made with petroleum-based components such as nylon and polypropylene. The Barcelona research also examined a heat-sealed cellulose material containing polypropylene. Bigelow Tea does not use these materials in any of its tea bags.

In the 2019 McGill University study, they used nylon and PET tea bags which Bigelow Tea doesn’t use.

In the 2024 Barcelona study, they used three different types of teabag materials all of which Bigelow Tea does not use. In this study, the method used by the researchers to evaluate each material was to steep 300 empty tea bags in one liter of 95°C water while stirring at 750 RPMs. As stated in the Winter 2025-2026 Stir Magazine, "this methodology cannot serve as a meaningful benchmark for consumer microplastic exposure as it bears no resemblance to actual tea-drinking behavior."

Follow-Up Research Findings

In addition to the fact that Bigelow Tea does not use these materials, these studies were not representative of consumers’ experiences. A follow-up peer-reviewed rebuttal that was published in Environmental Science & Technology by the American Chemical Society reviewed the McGill study, which focused on fully plastic tea bags made from materials not used by Bigelow Tea. They found that earlier claims about billions of microplastics being released were likely overstated. The authors noted that the testing methods may have misidentified some residue as plastic when it was not, raising questions about how the original particle counts were determined.

Bigelow Tea Bags Summation

Sources
Banaei et al., Teabag-derived micro- and nanoplastics during tea preparation, Chemosphere (2024). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.143736

Hernandez et al., Plastic teabags release micro- and nanoparticles into tea, Environmental Science & Technology (2019). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b02540

Busse et al., Comment on “Plastic teabags release billions of microparticles and nanoparticles into tea,” Environmental Science & Technology (2020). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c03182