Economic, social and environmental impacts and overall sustainability of the tea sector in Sri Lanka

This evidence based study uses combined lifecycle and value/supply chain analysis to examine the sustainability (environmental, social and economic impacts) of tea manufacturing in Sri Lanka, a major export earner and employment creating product. Environmental indicators assessed include carbon emissions and energy use, social indicators include labour use and gender, and the economic indicator is cost. These indicators are assessed at all stages of production, processing, export, use and disposal. A cross-section of Low, Medium and High grown tea factories producing Crush, Tear, Curl (CTC) and Orthodox and Green tea (where available) were investigated. The study uncovered many issues including energy efficiency of the industry, Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, and occupational health hazards. One key result is that at the cultivation and processing stage, low grown orthodox tea is the most efficient in terms of labour use, energy use and carbon emissions. Energy use is highest in the use phase due to the high amounts of energy needed to heat water for a 2.5g tea bag. CO2 emissions are highest in the packaging stage due to the large amount of materials such as cardboard needed to package tea bags. Labour use is highest in the labour intensive cultivation stage. Costs are also highest in the cultivation stage/purchase of tea leaves, due to the high labour use.