Insights of carbon footprint of tea through life cycle approach

Stabilizing GHG emissions in the agri-food sector is crucial for climate change mitigation. Tea is one of the most consumed drinks worldwide and such high levels of consumption necessitate for the carbon footprint (CF) assessment of its entire life cycle encompassing all six stages such as cultivation, processing, packaging, transportation, consumption and disposal to understand the environmental impact of tea industry at large. In this context, this study is a maiden attempt to quantify and compare CF for the entire life cycle of all three types of tea such as black, green and white tea in a single research paper by employing the life cycle assessment (LCA) method in significant tea growing areas of Tamil Nadu, India. The findings revealed that the consumption stage contributed the highest CO2 emissions, accounting for 45%-56% to overall CF. Black tea consumption contributed 45% (5.8 kg CO2-eq/kg of made tea) of the total CF, while green tea and white tea had higher CF (8.3 kg CO?-eq/kg of made tea), contributing 56% to the total CF. The processing stage was the second largest source, contributing 12-19% to overall CF, followed by packaging (15-17%) and cultivation (10-11%) stages. Overall, the total CF (cradle to grave) for black tea and white tea had a similar value of 12.9 kg CO2-eq/kg of made tea, whereas green tea registered a higher value of 14.79 kg CO2-eq/kg of made tea. Furthermore, this assessment identified hotspots of GHG emissions. It enabled the recommendation of CF reduction measures to promote carbon neutrality in tea sector while being a part of global climate change mitigation efforts.