The Republic of Tea
The signature round bag is unbleached "tea paper" with no glue, no staple, no string, and no tag - a genuinely minimalist, low-waste design, and the company confirms no chlorine is used in the paper. The open question is the seam: glue-free, staple-free round bags of this style are commonly fused with a thermoplastic (polypropylene or PLA) melt fiber blended into the paper, and The Republic of Tea has not confirmed on the record that its seal is free of it. Independent PFAS screening of one round bag came back non-detect for fluorine, but that doesn't rule out a non-fluorinated melt seal.
How clear are their specs?
Clearly documents the unbleached paper and the no-glue/no-staple/no-string design, but is silent on whether the heat-crimped seal contains a thermoplastic melt fiber - the one detail that decides plastic-free vs. minimal-contact here.