Sustainable Fibers for Tea and Coffee Filters

In the hot beverages market, there is a clear trend to introduce more sustainable and reliable raw materials for manufacturing tea bags and coffee pods.

For example, several firms are marketing plastic-free bags including Eteaket, T2, Nemi Tea, Roqberry, Pukka Herbs, Teapigs, some Twinings as well as Good and Proper. Many of the larger tea firms including PG Tips and Lipton are converting.

Marco Gallo, business manager for packaging, at Lenzing AG Austria, explains that lyocell fibers are the latest generation of wood-based cellulosic fibers for manufacturing environmentally friendly tea bags.

“In contrast to the traditional viscose process, that is chemically complex, the lyocell process is purely a physical process involving a direct dissolution of the pulp in the organic solvent, without any chemical reaction,” he said.

Compared to other manufacturing processes, the lyocell process is much less resource and energy intensive, therefore, the use of lyocell fibers offers great advantages from an environmental perspective.

“Produced from sustainably grown wood, LENZING™ Lyocell fibers are not thermoplastic but are ideal for designing all kinds of tea bags and coffee pods,” he said.

As the raw material wood is not seasonal, supply is consistent throughout the year and this represents a considerable advantage compared to annual fibers.

Moreover, Lenzing’s production processes and quality control ensure that LENZING™ Lyocell fibers are of consistently high quality.

“The use of LENZING™ Lyocell fibers in tea bags has a positive impact on paper porosity and allows balancing outstanding infusion characteristics with extremely low release of tea dust. Paper produced with LENZING™ Lyocell showed perfect integrity after being converted in tea bags with state of the art machines,” Gallo explained.

Lenzing commissioned several studies demonstrating that paper made with LENZING™ Lyocell fibers have a “neutral” influence on sensorial properties of hot beverages.

“For instance, taste and aroma panel tests carried out by certified panelists showed that tea’s key properties have not been impacted by tea bags paper containing LENZING™ Lyocell fibers,” he said.

Furthermore, infusions occurred at the desired speed and the color of brewed beverages met the targets set by premium commercial tea products.

Derived from nature, LENZING™ Lyocell fibers have been certified as compostable and biodegradable under industrial, home, soil and marine conditions, thus they can fully revert back to nature and can be used in certified biodegradable composites. LENZING™ Lyocell fibers gained a reputation for their environmentally responsible production process which received the European Award for the Environment from the European Commission in the category “The Technology Award for Sustainable Development.

“Moreover LENZING™ Lyocell fibers have earned United States Department of Agriculture BioPreferred® designation,” Gallo said.

Lenzing’s wood procurement management system ensures that all wood is sourced from demonstrably legal and sustainably managed sources. In order to demonstrate that wood sourcing complies with Lenzing’s high standards, the company relies on FSC® and PEFC™ certification systems for verification purposes.

Lenzing has been a frontrunner adopting the biorefinery concept ensuring that 100% of wood constituents are used to produce fibers, biobased chemicals, and bioenergy, thus maximizing value creation and environmental perspective.

“Looking at the evolution of the hot beverages market, LENZING™ Lyocell demonstrates its innovative potential in the development of customized solutions with focus on performance and aesthetics, like, for example, tea bags with enhanced transparency,” said Gallo.