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The Environmental Impact of Tea
There are all sorts of teas, but in this
article I'll focus on the world's most popular flavored beverage made from the
dried leaves and buds of the tea bush, Camellia sinensis.
While the amount of tea used in the preparation of a single cup may seem tiny,
well over 4 million tons of tea is produced annually around the world.
As far as beverages go, tea is probably one of the more natural as in its
simplest form, it just consists of dried plant material without a great deal
of processing. However, like any intensive monocropping, tea farming does have
an environmental impact.
To generate that 4+ million tons of dried
plant material each year means a great deal of land is utilized for growing
the plant. As demand increases, so does the amount of land required. The
massive alteration of habitats for farming tea means some plant and animal
species native to that area suffer.
Additionally, pesticides and artificial fertilizers are often used in tea
plantations to restore nutrients used by the tea bush and to fend off
parasites. The resulting soil degradation is a major issue, one usually
addressed by using even more fertilizer and chemicals that further compounds
the soil degradation problem. Chemical runoff into waterways can also be a
problem.
Unlike some other food crops though, the tea bush isn't ripped out of the
ground during harvest - only the top 1-2 inches of the mature plant are
picked; so in that aspect, it's quite a sustainable crop. An individual tea
bush can be commercially viable for up to a century.
When we see images of tea plantations, the bushes are only around waist
height; but tea plants can actually grow to an incredible 50 feet high if
left unharvested.
After the tea is picked, it's fermented for a period depending on the type
of flavor to be achieved. This fermenting is called "withering"
and as the name suggests, it just consists of the leaf drying for a period
naturally.
After the withering, the leaves are rolled through machinery and then they
need to be fully dried. This is not carried out by air-drying - the leaves
are heated using fuels such as wood or gas. According to information from WWF,
in Sri Lanka it takes between 1.5 and 2.5 kilograms of wood to produce 1
kilogram of tea. While the wood required for drying is increasingly grown in
plantations, in some cases it is still taken from local forests.
Some of the above sounds a little un-green, but compare it to other
beverages and tea seems quite environmentally friendly; until we come to the
packaging involved with some tea products.
Loose leaf tea usually just comes in a box with a liner - so nothing
terribly environmentally evil there (comparatively speaking). Where
packaging does have a particular impact is in relation to tea
bags made of nylon. Traditionally, tea bags have been made from special
paper derived from Abacá (a type of banana tree) , but a few years back
there appeared to be a major push by tea companies to use nylon. I haven't
seen too many brands using nylon tea bags in Australia...yet.
Probably the only other major environmental issue is that of food
miles - as tea plantations are predominantly in Africa, Asia and India,
it can be very a long way from farm to cup.
As I was perusing various tea company sites while researching for this
article, it was encouraging to see many of them featuring an environmental
section where they detail their efforts and plans to further minimize the
impact of their operations. Some are switching to organically
grown tea leaves, aiming for Rainforest Alliance Certification, using
biodegradable boxes and pouches and importantly - implementing fair
trade concepts; so looking after people as well as the planet.
If you have a favorite brand of tea, visit their company web site to find
out what environmental efforts they are making.
Tip: I'm not a big tea drinker, but I'm told the tea in tea bags is
generally rather low quality stuff - tea "dust". So by switching
to loose leaf tea, you'll not only cut down on packaging but you'll get a
better tasting cuppa.
Bonus tip: If you do use tea bags, instead of throwing them into your
household trash bin - they can be composted
or added to a worm
farm.
Courtesy : Michael Bloch
Green Living Tips.com
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