<p>Just after drinking water, tea is one of the most popular and extensively consumed beverages, with outstanding health benefits, including its ability to reduce inflammation; prevent cardiovascular disease; fight cancer; lower blood sugar; and prevent obesity with neuroprotective and antioxidant properties. Being an evergreen shrub, tea bushes are periodically pruned at 3–4-year intervals. Pruning operations generate a huge amount of litter in commercial plantations, and it is still predominantly treated as a low‑value waste, despite its chemically complex lignocellulosic composition and potential as a circular bioresource. Over the decade, the world’s tea output has increased dramatically due to the growing demand for tea and its derivatives, which has resulted in an enormous annual production of waste pruning residues causing serious environmental issues. Conventional management practices such as in‑field burning or uncontrolled dumping aggravate soil acidification, greenhouse gas emissions, and local pollution, thereby undermining the long‑term sustainability of tea ecosystems. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the generation, composition, and decomposition dynamics of pruning residues and critically evaluates major biological and thermochemical valorization pathways, including mulching, composting, vermicomposting, biochar production, bioenergy generation, activated carbon, and polyphenol extraction. Particular attention is given to how lignocellulosic architecture, polyphenol content, and soil acidification shape both the mechanistic behaviour of TPL in soils and the operational performance of conversion technologies under field conditions. Across these pathways, this review compares not only biochemical mechanisms and properties but also the state of empirical evidence for agronomic effectiveness, environmental co‑benefits, and socio‑economic feasibility in smallholder and estate‑based tea systems.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>