Elk Packaging’s Customer Numi Tea Launches Compostable Overwrap for Tea Bags

It took about 10 years, and it wasn’t without a setback or two. But Oakland-based Numi Organic Tea now has an overwrap for individual tea bags that is ASTM D6868-substantiated as compostable in commercial composting facilities. Developed by sustainable packaging company Elk Packaging , the three-layer adhesive lamination consists of, from the outside in, paper/cellophane/polylactic acid. The cellophane layer is Futamura’s  Natureflex cellophane, a clear cast film made in Futamura’s plant in the UK of renewable wood pulp from managed plantations. According to Jake Hebert, Senior Manager of Sales and Marketing at Futamura, the gas barrier properties of this particular Natureflex are between 0.03 and 0.06 cc of O2/100 sq in./24 hr. “The crystalline nature of cellophane makes it a very effective oxygen barrier,” he adds. “In this particular application we include a very light metallization for moisture barrier. It’s such a minute amount it’s barely detectable when the material breaks down in the compost facility. Whatever does remain doesn’t hinder the degradation process because the aluminum is effectively inert, a naturally occurring element.”