Arbor Teas Commits to Compostable Packaging, Wins Gold Award

On Earth Day 2010, Arbor Teas became one of the first tea companies in the United States, if not the first – to deliver a full line of organic loose teas in backyard compostable packaging, offering a sustainable alternative to customers. Since then, Arbor Teas has continued to refine and improve its packaging as part of its motto: “Never Stop Improving.”

Today, Arbor Teas backyard compostable packaging was awarded the Gold Award in Sustainability by one of the most respected competitions in the industry, the Flexible Packaging Association Achievement Awards.

Arbor Teas is a family-owned organic tea company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Their daily mission is to find the world's most fantastic organic teas and deliver them to customers as sustainably as possible. All of the company’s loose-leaf teas and herbs are certified organic and packaged using backyard compostable materials. In addition to a carefully curated organic tea catalog, the company offers teapots, mugs, infusers and accessories, as well as gift sets, tea samplers and kombucha homebrew kits.

Arbor Tea’s Award-Winning Compostable Packaging

Arbor Tea’s recent honor from the Flexible Packaging Association was shared with the manufacturers of the packaging films, Polykar and Futamura USA, and printer/converter Eagle Flexible Packaging. The partnership with these innovative companies made creating a no-waste packaging system for loose leaf tea a reality for Arbor Teas.

RELATED: Founder of Outwoken Tea in Milwaukee Focuses on Positively Impacting the Environment

The award-winning packaging is comprised of two backyard compostable films. The printed web layer is composed of NatureFlex from Futamura, a cellulose film made from wood pulp. The thin film is sourced from sustainably managed trees, composts quickly and is lightweight, meaning there is less to ship. Laminated over the printed layer is sealant layer PKBIO200C from Polykar. This film is derived from partially bio-based resin from corn feedstock. It has high clarity, a low seal initiation temperature, and the resin it comes from is certified to ASTM D-6400 industrial compostable, plus is home-compostable by TUV in Europe.

While this lamination achievement was enough to convince FPA judges of the Gold Award, the bag’s backyard compostability chops don’t end there. It also features a sugar cane-based backyard compostable label created by Pure Labels. The sugar cane fibers are collected from sugar cane waste, thereby diverting waste from landfills to paper production. They’re adhered with an innovative compostable adhesive that is vegan and meets the requirements of DIN CERTCO and BPI for biodegradability and compostability in addition to being compliant with the ASTM D6868.

Finally, the backyard compostable bags are lighter than previous packaging (metal tin, paperboard tube and kraft bag), and lighter than many other options on the market, according to Arbor Teas.

"We were so honored to receive the Gold Award in Sustainability,” said Aubrey Lopatin, co-owner of Arbor Teas. “For over a decade, Arbor Teas has been continually improving our backyard compostable packaging, working to create an eco-friendly system that is, as our partners at Futamuro say, ‘a packaging solution, not a packaging pollution.’ Our current award-winning iteration uses the minimum material necessary to safely transport our tea to our customer's home. And for the first time, tea drinkers are able to compost their used tea leaves and tea packaging together in their home composting system.”

A Meaningful Reduction in the Carbon Footprint of Arbor Teas’ Operations

Overall, Arbor Teas was able to reduce the weight of its packaging materials by more than 60 percent. This translates to a meaningful reduction in the carbon footprint of Arbor Teas’ operations, the company says.

And in response to customer requests, Arbor Teas’ packaging also accommodates more tea. On average, the company’s packages contain 27 percent more tea than they did previously, a unique reversal of the “shrinkflation” trend in the broader marketplace. And, as always, Arbor Teas keeps its tea loose, vs. confining the tea inside single-serve tea bags or K-cups. Instead, all of the tea is loosely hand packed inside one bulk package. This eliminates the need for extra material and keeps it out of the waste stream. The result, more tea and less packaging.

To learn more about Arbor Teas, visit ArborTeas.com.