Kettle’s on and a heap of plastic trouble brewing

PUTTING the kettle on is as British as fish and chips and a pint of bitter.

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We make a staggering g 100 million cups of tea each h and every day.

But before your next t shopping trip, you might ht want to think twice about ut which brew you buy after an investigation found some of the biggest brands contain polypropylene – a type of plastic that takes hundreds of years to degrade.

Scientists have discovered each time we make a brew, microplastics – tiny particles – are shed from the bags straight into our cups of tea.

E xperiments carried out at the University of East Anglia’s chemistry lab dissolved the compostable parts of teabags to reveal their plastic skeletons.

Out of Britain’s six biggest tea brands, only three triumph with plastic-free bags: Clipper, PG Tips and Pukka.

Twinings, Yorkshire and Tetley all revealed plastic skeletons.

The findings were part of the BBC’S War on Plastic series.

These firms have now said they will be switching to fully biodegradable bags ags by the end of 2020.

Microplastics have also been found und in beer, fish and even some types of bottled ottled water. Little is known about the health implications of i ngesting plastic particles, although some scientists believe the build-up i n our bodies over years could have serious consequences for our immune system and gut health – a ticking time bomb.

It might already be happening.

Wild swimmer Laura Owen Sanderson , a former ar t teacher, earlier this month was collecting water samples from all 15 national parks to test them for microplastic pollution. But she was forced to halt the project with Bangor University after she fell ill from the pollution.

They now hope to raise awareness of the growing scale of microplastic pollution and have it recognised as an official pollutant under the regulations that monitor the health of the country’s waterways.

We are all too familiar with images of dead seabirds and other marine animals that have ingested plastics. More cash must now be invested in world-class research to ensure plastic does not become the tobacco of the 21st century.

Tea bags