Teabags account for a whopping 96 percent of the 165 million cups of tea drunk every day in the UK. Anti-plastic campaigners have been appealing to customers to use loose tea or “greener” options such as Japanese-style “pyramids” made of 100 percent compostable corn starch, but these are more expensive than mainstream mass-produced teabags. That’s why one of the UK’s biggest retailers is developing a fully biodegradable paper teabag that does not contain plastic. The teabags are free of polypropylene, a sealant used industry wide to enable teabags to hold their shape, and are set to go on sale by the end of the year.