Tesco's 'misleading' biodegradable teabag claim criticised

A spokesperson for Tesco said the retailer strongly disputes the claims based on the study method as the teabags are not approved to dispose of in soil or home composting.

A formal complaint has been made about teabags sold by Tesco, alleging they were “misleadingly” labelled as biodegradable.

The complaint made to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) follows a study of eight commonly found brands of tea by UCC’s Dr Alicia Mateos-Cárdenas. The study found that Tesco Finest pyramid teabags which were labelled as biodegradable did not decompose despite being buried in soil for 12 months.

A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the School of Law and the School of Environmental Science at UCC are now calling for action to investigate the alleged “greenwashing” by Tesco, as well as “the systemic issue of misleading environmental claims by big retailers”. They said greenwashing in retail has become “rife” in recent years.

A spokesperson for Tesco said the retailer strongly disputes the claims based on the study method as the teabags are not approved to dispose of in soil or home composting. The spokesperson also said the teabags used in the study were delisted in 2021 while all remaining pyramid teabags from the supplier were delisted in 2022.

However, postgraduate students at the Environmental Law Clinic at UCC, Aoife Stewart and Kristina Schröder, said the change in suppliers is “meaningless”.

“We are not surprised by this reaction which is why our team did a lab analysis of the material used in 2023 showing no difference from the one used until 2022,” they said. 

In any case, changing the material now, which they didn’t, could not have served as an excuse for misleading claims made in the past.

Tesco did not respond to further requests for comment by the time of publishing.

CEO of environmental charity, Voice Ireland, Mindy O’Brien said: “Now more than ever, consumers are increasingly motivated to purchase a product that appears to be more sustainable. We call on the CCPC to investigate such claims to avoid future greenwashing."

Dr Mateos-Cárdenas said that the same claim is often made about other products sold by various retailers while other common claims, such as those relating to recyclability have also come under criticism with some leading to lawsuits.

The CCPC confirmed that the complaint has been passed to the Consumer Protection division for review.

Director of Communications Grainne Griffin said: “On the broader issue of ‘greenwashing’, it is an offence for any trader to make a false or misleading claim about goods, services and prices. It is also an offence to sell goods which bear a false or misleading description."