Tea sacks don’t get good press. To be fair, they don’t get any press. These functional, rather plain, bags are always overshadowed by the glorious tea they carry.

But beneath that dull exterior, they’re actually rather clever. A special foil lining ensures the tea leaves stay as fresh as possible as they make their way to our factory. In fact, we get through more than six tonnes of them each month.

Here's Vanessa with a stack of sacks

Previously, to avoid sending the old sacks to landfill, we’ve been shipping them to a company in the Netherlands, but doing that obviously increases our carbon emissions – so we were desperate to find someone closer to home.

Thankfully, we have – through the lovely people at Clear Waste Services we found a company in Stockport who now take our old tea sacks… and turn it into graph paper!

So next time you’re enjoying a cuppa, take a moment to think about that unsung hero, the humble tea sack. Not so pretty, but rather well travelled and now doubly useful.