Tea bag materials and standards: paper, nylon, PET, PLA

Tea bag materials come in two families: filter paper and plastic. Paper bags are often heat-sealed with polypropylene, and some are blended with PLA, while fully plastic bags are made of nylon, PET or PLA (polylactic acid, a plastic made from plant biomass). In China, the paper is covered by GB/T 25436-2023 (茶叶滤纸), in force since 1 April 2024, the finished tea bag by GB/T 24690-2018 (袋泡茶), and the materials by the national food safety standards GB 4806.8-2022 for paper and GB 4806.7-2023 for plastics. In the EU, every material must meet Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004, plastics also Regulation (EU) No 10/2011, and by 12 February 2028 every tea bag must be compatible with industrial composting standards under the Packaging Regulation (EU) 2025/40 (texts checked October 2026).

What tea bags are made of: paper, nylon, PET and PLA

Tea filter paper is a food packaging paper for filter bags of tea, coffee, seasonings and Chinese medicines, made for automatic tea-packing machines and on the market for more than 80 years, according to the official record of the English version of GB/T 25436-2023. The record says China makes more than 4,000 tonnes a year and exports about 3,000 tonnes a year, a rising figure, to Europe, East Asia, South Asia and elsewhere; it gives no reference year. Chinese standards recognise two types: heat-seal (热封型) and non-heat-seal (非热封型).

Heat-sealed paper bags often hide plastic. A 2020 study for the European Commission describes paper tea bags as “often heat sealed with polypropylene”, so they contain plastic that is not obvious. In 2021, University College Dublin researchers sorted tea bags from six popular brands into three classes: a plastic bag made mainly of nylon 6/6, composites of polypropylene and cellulose, and bags free from any plastic traces. Field studies in Ireland (2022) and at the University of Plymouth (2024) also tested “plant-based” bags blending cellulose with PLA.

Fully plastic bags are made of nylon or PET, the two materials a 2019 McGill University study identified in the particles it measured, or of PLA. PLA is 100% bio-based and industrially compostable, but does not conventionally biodegrade in other environments because of the high temperatures required, according to the 2020 study, which calls it “factually incorrect” to say PLA is not a plastic. EU law agrees: Regulation 10/2011 defines a plastic as a polymer, with or without additives, that can act as the main structural component of a material.

Tea bag materials compared (sources: the standards and texts cited in this guide; checked October 2026)

China’s tea bag standards: GB/T 25436-2023 and GB/T 24690-2018

GB/T 25436-2023, Filter paper for teabags (茶叶滤纸), was published on 7 September 2023 and took effect on 1 April 2024, replacing GB/T 25436-2010 for heat-seal paper and GB/T 28121-2011 for non-heat-seal paper, both now repealed; an official English version followed on 2 September 2024. It is a recommended (推荐性) standard of the national technical committee for food-contact materials. According to the record of the revision project, it applies to paper for bags of tea, coffee, seasonings, Chinese herbal decoctions or desiccants, and its main technical content covers food safety, grammage, tightness, tensile strength, wet strength, heat-seal strength, air permeability, filtering time, moisture on delivery and appearance.

GB/T 24690-2018, Teabag (袋泡茶), took effect on 1 June 2018, replacing the 2009 edition. The record of its English version (31 December 2021) calls it the basic standard for classifying and evaluating tea bags. A review on 17 May 2021 concluded that it should be revised, but in October 2026 the official record still listed the 2018 edition as current, with no revision plan.

The quality items of a recommended standard are not always enforced: in its sampling inspections, Guangzhou’s market regulator does not judge a product on a GB/T 25436 quality item when the product’s stated quality requirements leave that item out.

What Guangzhou’s market regulator tests on tea filter paper (sampling rules, July 2024 revision)

Food-contact standards in China: GB 4806.8 and GB 4806.7

China’s national food safety standards (GB) are mandatory for both domestic and imported products, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA, May 2025). Three concern tea bags directly:

• GB 4806.1-2016, the general safety requirements for all food-contact materials, still listed as current in the National Health Commission’s catalogue of national food safety standards as of September 2025.
• GB 4806.8-2022 for paper and board, in force since 30 June 2023, when it replaced the 2016 edition. According to the Ganzhou market regulator, it added two limits, 1,3-dichloro-2-propanol not detected and 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol at most 12 µg/L, and these chloropropanols come mainly from the breakdown of additives widely used in paper, such as polyamide-epichlorohydrin wet-strength resin.
• GB 4806.7-2023 for plastics, released on 6 September 2023 and in force since 6 September 2024. It replaced both GB 4806.6-2016 on plastic resins and GB 4806.7-2016, and covers nylon, PET and PLA bags alike.

For exports, China’s customs rules defer to the destination. Under GACC Order No. 249 (Article 38), export food must meet the standards of the importing country or the contract, and China’s national food safety standards apply only where neither of these, nor a treaty, sets a requirement.

EU rules: Regulation 1935/2004, Regulation 10/2011 and the Packaging Regulation

Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 covers every material that touches food. Materials must not transfer their constituents to food in quantities that could endanger human health, bring an unacceptable change in its composition or impair its organoleptic characteristics, such as taste and smell, and their labelling must not mislead (Article 3). Filter paper or empty bags sold to a tea packer must be accompanied by the words “for food contact”, a specific indication of use or the EU symbol, which between businesses may appear on the accompanying documents, unless their characteristics show they are clearly meant for food (Article 15), and must be traceable (Article 17). The EU has specific measures for plastics but none for paper, for which member states may keep or adopt national provisions.

Regulation (EU) No 10/2011, in its version consolidated on 14 July 2026, adds rules for plastics, and so for nylon, PET and PLA bags:

• Overall migration: no more than 10 mg of constituents per dm² of food-contact surface (Article 12).
• Specific limits: for example 15 mg/kg of food for caprolactam, used mainly to make synthetic fibres such as nylon 6, and 7.5 mg/kg for terephthalic acid, a polyester raw material (Annex I).
• Declaration of compliance: at every stage before retail, a written declaration with the information in Annex IV (Article 15).

Since 12 August 2026, the Packaging Regulation (EU) 2025/40 has treated “a permeable tea, coffee or other beverage bag” as packaging. Food-contact packaging may not contain PFAS at or above 25 ppb for any single PFAS, 250 ppb for their sum, or 50 ppm including polymeric PFAS (Article 5). By 12 February 2028, tea bags placed on the market must be compatible with the standard for composting in industrially controlled conditions, and with home-composting standards where a member state requires it (Article 9). Customs codes for tea in bags are in our guide to HS codes for tea, and the EU’s other rules in our guide to importing Chinese tea into the EU.

Sources: GB/T 25436-2023 record; National Health Commission catalogue of standards (September 2025); Regulation (EU) 2025/40, Articles 5, 9, 12 and 71; Directive (EU) 2024/825, Article 4

What “compostable” and “biodegradable” claims rest on

In the EU, compostable packaging has been assessed against EN 13432:2000, “the de facto method” for verifying compostable plastics according to the 2020 study for the Commission; the Commission published the standard’s reference in 2001 under the Packaging Directive 94/62/EC. As summarised in that study, the standard requires:

• Disintegration: after 12 weeks in test composting, no more than 10% of the material may remain in fragments larger than 2 mm.
• Biodegradation: at least 90% conversion to carbon dioxide, compared with a reference material, within 6 months.
• Chemistry and compost quality: heavy metals below set thresholds, no negative effect on plant growth in a germination test and no negative effect on the composting process.

The study calls the US standard ASTM D6400 the American equivalent, with almost identical requirements. China’s GB/T 28206-2011 is an identical adoption of ISO 17088:2008, and a revision was awaiting approval in October 2026; its standard on the degradability and labelling of biodegradable plastics, GB/T 41010-2021, has applied since 1 June 2022.

EN 13432 tests compostability in industrial composting, which often runs at 55 °C to 60 °C with high humidity, according to the Commission’s 2022 policy framework; the framework adds that compliance with industrial composting standards does not imply decomposition in a home compost. It names tea bags among suitable uses for industrially compostable plastics and says only certified industrially compostable plastics should be called “compostable”, always specifying industrial composting. The Packaging Regulation, which repealed Directive 94/62/EC from 12 August 2026 apart from a few transitional provisions, says EN 13432 should be revised for composting times, contamination and microplastic release, and serves only as guidance until then.

Since 27 September 2026, EU member states have applied Directive (EU) 2024/825, which bans generic environmental claims such as “biodegradable” unless recognised excellent environmental performance can be shown; a claim specified clearly on the same medium is not generic. Since 1 January 2022, France has banned placing tea and herbal-tea bags of non-biodegradable plastic on its market, under its anti-waste law (Article L541-15-10 of the Environment Code).

In a garden in Cork, Ireland, from November 2020 to November 2021, all-PLA bags stayed intact for 12 months, cellulose-only and cellulose–PLA bags had gone by the 3.5-month sampling, and cellulose–polypropylene bags fragmented, leaving polypropylene pieces after a year. In a University of Plymouth study published in 2024, two cellulose–PLA bags buried 10 cm deep in an arable field margin lost 66% and 78% of their mass in seven months, mainly cellulose, while an all-PLA bag was unchanged.

Particles released by plastic tea bags: what studies measured

Three laboratory studies have counted particles released by tea bags. Their methods and units differ, so their figures cannot be compared with one another, and none is a regulatory limit.

Particle counts from tea bags in laboratory studies (dated, as published)

The 2019 paper drew a comment from researchers in Germany and a reply from its authors, both published in the same journal in October 2020.

Morocco: food-contact materials for tea

Morocco’s tea decree, Decree 2-13-711 of 4 March 2015, requires tea to be packed in closed, clean and dry containers and to meet Article 53 of Decree 2-10-473, in particular for its packaging. Among that article’s conditions for compliant food is packing in materials intended to come into contact with food, whose composition and use are set by a joint order of the ministers of agriculture, fisheries, health, and industry and trade. Label rules for Morocco, West Africa and the EU are compared in our guide to tea labelling requirements.

Checklist: tea bag material in a purchase contract

• Material and type: paper (heat-seal or non-heat-seal, under GB/T 25436-2023), nylon, PET or PLA, and the fibre used for heat-sealing.
• Chinese test report: GB 4806.8-2022 for paper or GB 4806.7-2023 for plastics, plus the GB/T 25436 items your packing line needs, such as wet strength and heat-seal strength.
• For the EU: a written declaration of compliance for plastics (Regulation 10/2011, Annex IV), PFAS below the Packaging Regulation limits, and a plan for compostable tea bags by 12 February 2028.
• Claims: “industrially compostable” with the standard named, not “biodegradable” alone.
• Outer packs and labels: cartons, liners and pack weights are compared in our guide to tea export packaging formats, and test reports and certificates in our guide to Chinese tea export documents.

This guide is general information, checked in October 2026, not legal advice: confirm the requirements with the importing country’s authorities or the buyer before ordering packaging.