Earth Day is an annual event held on April 22nd to demonstrate support for environmental protection. Right now, more than ever, we need to work towards a sustainable future for our Mother Earth.
We're celebrating Earth Day by appreciating and respecting the natural world, by doing our bit to contribute to a more sustainable future. Here, we've curated a list of ways to keep drinking chai and coffee sustainably.
1. Reduce tea packaging
Loose leaf tea blends are the place to start in reducing tea packaging. Brewing chai in a pot, or on the stove eliminates the need for tea bags. Drinking loose leaf tea creates less waste and reduces your carbon footprint.
2. Bring a reusable mug to your coffee shop
Even if paper cups are recyclable, bringing your own keep cup along for your morning brew helps to reduce waste. You could even go one step further with a Huskee Cup, made from the usually discarded husks of coffee beans.
3. Feed your garden and houseplants with used tea leaves
The benefits of tea don't stop with the brew alone. Even though the tea leaves no longer have much flavour after brewing, they're still packed full of nutrients. Try drying your used tea leaves and mixing them into your plants soil! The nutrients will be absorbed by the soil, creating a natural fertiliser.
4. Make an eco-friendly floor cleaner
Tannins in tea make tea leaves a great hardwood floor cleaner. Make your floors shine by boil a pot of water, steeping your used tea leaves for about 10 minutes and pouring the strained mixture into your mop bucket.
DID YOU KNOW: CHAGRA AND THE CONCEPT OF MOTTAINAI
Mottainai is an ancient Japanese philosophy, the term expressing the feeling of regret at wasting the intrinsic value of a resource of object. Mottainai can be translated as both "what a waste" and "don't be wasteful". The concept comes through in every part of Japanese culture, not excluding tea leaves.
In Japan, dried used tea leaves are beneficial in many ways because the benefits of tea leaves don't just stop at the brew. The Japanese refer to these dried tea leaves as Chagra. Chagra is prepared by removing excess moisture from the tea leaves and either sun-drying or drying in the oven.
These dried tea leaves are then often used in healthy and beauty, as a mild antiseptic, or in the garden and around the home.
