Tea industry calls for ban on harmful reprocessed tea waste

MP, 29 July 2024, Alipurduar: There are reports of unscrupulous businessmen procuring tea waste (the end product of tea processing), reprocessing it, and passing it off as tea in the market. 

This spurious tea is a potential health hazard. The tea estate owners’ association has demanded a complete ban on the sale of tea waste by the Indian Tea Board. Terai Indian Planters Association (TIPA) president Mahendra Bansal has written a letter to the Deputy Chairman of the Tea Board in Kolkata, on July 25, urging the board to stop the sale of tea waste. 

The letter stated: “We plead with folded hands that no tea waste should be allowed to be sold. It should be dispatched from the tea factory only for export to be used as organic fertiliser.” 

After picking the tea leaves in each garden, a core of tea fibre remains, which contains high levels of caffeine and is not useful for making tea but can be used as organic fertiliser. High levels of caffeine are very harmful to the human body. 

That waste is being sold through the Tea Board portal. Allegations are that this waste is not being made into organic fertiliser. Instead, it is being blended with tea and sold at low prices in the open market. 

Mahendra Bansal said: “Organic fertilisers are sold at very low prices in the Indian market. Naturally, even if someone buys that waste through the Tea Board portal, it is not being composted. 

Some unscrupulous people are running these illicit operations in Assam, Bengal, and Bihar. Banning the sale of waste by the Tea Board will solve many problems.” A section of the tea community said that many tea gardens are knowingly selling the waste to unscrupulous groups. 

From Assam to North Bengal, the waste is being transported to different parts of the country for processing. Since it is not prohibited, the police administration cannot take any action. 

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