I decided to have a green tea because it’s healthier than soda. It’s healthier, right?
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The first time I saw a bag like that, I was shocked as well. Seems like just the worst idea to use plastic to create tea bags. Turns out it is and they weren’t made out of plastic. It’s a starch based fiber that is biodegradable. I don’t think you could have plastic tea bags here in the EU in any case. I’d wager yours isn’t plastic either. Yeah, so you probably got mildly infuriated over nothing, just like I did the first time I saw one of these 🤷
https://youtu.be/limwsUnH4iQ?feature=shared
Regular teabags are sometimes made using non-biodegradable plastic - be sure to buy those made with this starch based plastic. When I first saw biodegradable teabags I was surprised, I thought teabags were made of paper. Not so, it turns out.
that was interesting, thanks!
there’s still a decent chance it’s only industrially biodegradable: at higher temperatures and pressures than a good ol’ home compost pile normally ever gets near. It could still be a bit infuriating.
This is almost always the case. If it’s biodegradable at room temperature and pressure, it’ll be degrading once you get it.
We’re probably best off converting most of our things into industrially biodegradable products, and then having our waste go to composting plants instead of landfills.
I’m glad they stopped using metal staples on them too. That always bugged me.
Plastic tea bags are really disappointing. It’s not enough that plastic is everywhere thanks to tire dust, I have to drink it, too? Cool.
At home, I use loose leaf and a metal strainer. Makes less waste, and there’s no plastic.
I have to drink it, too?
If it makes you feel any better, there’s so much microplastic everywhere that there was going to be plastic in that water regardless of what the tea bag was made of.
And there’s not even really anything you can do about it. Reverse osmosis should be able to get rid of microplastics but the fucking containers for the filters are plastic and the lines running between them are plastic so they’re just going to reintroduce microplastics even after filtering!
There was a recent study showing that boiling water could actually break down and remove a surprising number of microplastics so I guess for making tea you might be a little better off but still
That’s a little hyperbolic. There’s a lot of mechanics at play in generating microplastics. Fabrics have microscopically thin strands of plastics. It should be no surprise that rubbing up against thousands of tiny strands every time we move and wash synthetic fabric clothes releases many tiny particles. Plus clothes have to deal with UV degradation making the plastic more brittle.
The plastic components in an RO system should be specced to not leach plasticizers. They should have smooth walls and laminar flow. There shouldn’t be much to abrade the plastic surfaces and shed particles. They may not be perfect, but water from an RO system will have orders of magnitude fewer microplastics. So an RO system still “does something about it.”
We do need to address the problem, but I wouldn’t want people to avoid beneficial remediation just because it has some plastic components.
obviously still better than not doing it but it’s just annoying and frustrating because they don’t make any out of stainless steel construction at least not that I can find. I was able to get stainless steel food grade corrugated piping because they use it in the Solar industry for solar hot water heating. Finding true stainless steel faucets instead of just stainless coated brass is possible although a little bit expensive. I’ve gone stainless for pretty much everything in the kitchen, including reusable straws as well as leftover food containers both the container and the lid. Because it seems to be basically the only material not actively attempting to kill us in some way.
So it’s not as if I’m not actively reducing my exposure to it as much as possible, but it’s really frustrating how impossible it is to escape from entirely
Boiling plus filtering (like the metal grid filter in many kettles)
The metal grid is nowhere near fine enough for microplastics. It’s like trying to filter out a car through gaps the size of the grand canyon
Looks like I got the wrong kind of filter, but eh 🤷
Tldr minerals capture it, the filter capture minerals
I just got into tea and have had a rough time finding a brand to buy that is loose leaf. They always end up being tea bags like this. Any suggestions for brands?
Loose tea isn’t very common on supermarket shelves. If you live near a store that has a bulk section, then they might have loose tea in bulk. I end up ordering online from Stash or Harney & Sons
Thanks, I’ll give these a try.
I’ve actually had good luck at a local Indian market. Also, places that are specifically tea retailers or online markets will be more likely to have it.
Order online! TenRen Teas has the best tea, imo, while Adagio has mid to high quality at a decent price and a wide variety of types and flavors.
Celestial Seasonings and PG tips are good grocery store brands with paper bags, but for loose leaf it’s worth seeing if you have a local tea shop. If there’s nowhere nearby, there’s some great online sellers. I’m a fan of Adagio and David’s tea.
Bigalow has paper bags, the only annoyance is that they come in individual wrappers made of paper/foil/(possibly plastic lining?).
Lipton came in paper pouches wrapped in paper last time I saw one.
If you’ve got an Asian grocery store near you they’ll most likely have loose leaf. I got into pu’er tea this way and it’s fantastic!
Just search loose tea leaves in your mother tongue and you’ll find some. Ordering online might be interesting as well these days
Tire dust? Tires are generaly made from a kind of rubber, not plastic. A great majority of micro plastics that end up in enviroment and in your body are shed from plastic fabrics. If you’re really worried about limiting plastic consumption check your clothing tags for polyester and nylon. Return to cotton, hemp, and linen.
Tyres are unfortunately plastics in this day and age as well.
As for the share of microplastic pollution, both rank about equally as high: 35% for clothes, 28% for tyres (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20181116STO19217/microplastics-sources-effects-and-solutions) - this as a share of directly released particles that make it into the ocean.
Note the interesting fact of fishing nets, plastic bags and bottles making up the vast majority of plastic in the ocean, however.
There’s one study I’m aware of that has tires as being responsible for up to 40% of oceanic microplastics
Are we sure thats not the commonly used silk tea bag? Why do we think this is plastic?
They are from polylactid and decompose without a trace and without microplastic. Paper tea bags on the other hand often contain around 20% polypropylene and cause microplastic.
Despite claims to the contrary, PLA does usually break down into microplastics. It’s possible that under certain conditions (such as those found in industrial composters) those microplastics might be broken down into starches and consumed by bacteria, but most teabags will just end up in landfill and won’t break down beyond microplastics.
These microplastics are digestible by your immune system, though, which makes them ultimately harmless. PLA is used for drug delivery for this reason.
Being concerned about incomplete PLA degradation is like being concerned about a piece of wood breaking down into micro-woods. Yet even if you get a dangerous shard of micro-wood embedded in your skin, your body can deal with this cellose polymer just fine.
Ultimately it will break down completely someday and in the meantime, nothing will be harmed.
You appear to be arguing that even if microplastics are present in the environment it’s not a problem. That’s a brave stance to take given the wealth of information to the contrary.
Even if they did break down it’s bad. Plastics have additives in them which are used to improve their material properties. These additives include BPA and PFAS (and similar). We know that these compounds cause problems in humans and the environment. So if they were “easily digestible by the body” that would absolutely be a big problem.
There’s no world in which “nothing will be harmed” by plastic decaying. Some people even argue that conventional plastics are less dangerous in landfill than bioplastics because at least they don’t release dangerous by-products like microplastics or “forever chemicals”.
If it’s at least possible for those micro plastics to be broken down, would it really matter if they don’t break down ina landfill? Either they stay in the landfill forever causing no problems or they leach out / blow away outside of the landfill and voila, proper conditions to be broken down into starches and consumed by bacteria.
They don’t break down completely in landfill. They just turn into microplastics.
Arghh, two conflicting replies. What do we do?!!
Eat Taco Bell and see who shits themselves first.
A gentlemen’s duel for the modern age.
Aw fuck I’m shitting myself right now and I haven’t even started eating taco bell what do I win
The gift has preaented itself.
…and who would be the winner?
Both parties.
God I hate those. Paper tea bags you can toss into the fireplace or in the compost depending on the time of year, but those plastic ones you can’t do anything but chuck them into the trash.
Paper tea bags usually contain polypropylene or another plastic so they can be heat sealed shut. They aren’t fully compostable.
Certainly in the UK, there has been a real push for fully compostible teabags. Clipper Tea and PG are fully compostable. Yorkshire Tea was not, last time I looked - which is why I stopped drinking it.
They make disposable tea bags made of the same paper as coffee filters
Though I bought relatively large paper-based filters before that explicitly said they were fully compostable. And since loose tea beats bagged tea 90% of the time anyways…
Well shit. I guess I’m gonna have a lot of micro plastics in my compost then.
Yeah, except those are actually from polylactid and decompose completely without microplastic. Paper tea bags on the other hand are often mixed with polypropylene and ironically contain microplastic and don’t decompose completely. The best way is a tea strainer anyway
Are you sure those aren’t nylon bags? Anyway I’ve found PLA’s biodegradability highly over rated. When Sunchips were doing those PLA bags I threw one into a worm bin, when I emptied the bin a year later it looked pretty much unchanged.
Tbf: I’m from germany and can only speak for our local market.
Yes PLAs decompose slow and waaay slower than advertising suggests and need certain conditions, but they are still the better choice over polypropylene.
Tbf: I’m from germany and can only speak for our local market.
Yes PLAs decompose slow and waaay slower than advertising suggests and need certain conditions, but they are still the better choice over polypropylene.
It’s not plastic
I just use a reusable filter for loose tea. Oxo makes a nice one.
Yup, tea cakes with a reusable metal filter. Each cake is wrapped in paper, not plastic. Then you just use a metal mesh filter.
How much tea does one of those cakes make or do you break them up beforehand?
Micro plastic stew
Laughs in loose leaf
Loose leaf club!
signature look of superiority
I can give you one more that can make me seem either a lot superior or a lot inferior in the tea snob world.
- Loose leaf
- Collected and fermented by myself
- But it’s not from the tea plant, it’s herbal tea
That’s fine. I prefer tea mixtures most of the time anyways.
Mixing green tea (like Gunpowder) with some moroccan mint (add sugar to your liking) tastest mighty fine. And the mint grows just fine in a pot on the balkony.
Oh yes, Tuareg tea is great! Especially when the nana/spearmint is fresh!
Tuareg tea
Didn’t know that it was called like that. Nice! :D
Also, I should try to get some nice fitting glasses. Just for fun.
Usually people in north Africa use small tea glasses and a simple chinese teapot made from sheet metal for making Tuareg tea.
Well, yes. That would be what those glasses and tea pots actually look like.
But some colourful stuff is more fun.
If you may ever feel an interest towards collecting your herbs, apple tree leaves are a tea that’s totally slept on.
Oxidise/ ferment them like one would black tea by freezing them to burst open the cells. Then thaw them and roll them in your hands into little balls or cigars. With enough pressure so that water comes out (your hands will turn yellow from the juice). Then rest these balls for a few minutes under cover, roast them quickly in a pan (not until it smells toasty, just to lose some moisture quickly) and dry.
Isn’t it cheaper to buy loose tea and use a tea ball? Does that avoid this entire problem?
I bought a giant bag of lapsang souchon and usually just use my french press. I also bought like a hundred empty paper tea pouches that have alson been good for making spiced apple juice
So there is another one who brew in a french press!
Hello friend, nice to meet you!
My supplier also ships the looseleaf in bags that are supposedly back yard compostable. Lots of options for loose leaf, better tea maybe, too.
In general, yes. Also it would be better for the environment, even if you want to avoid washing the ball up and use tea filters
What’s a tea ball
There are many designs: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=tea+ball&iax=shopping&ia=shopping
Oh, basically a steeper. Thanks.
Some brands now use plant or cellulose derived material for their tea bags. Though they still use plastic for the outer wrappers, which is a bit annoying.
now
Now?! That used to be the default until some hipster companies started fucking shit up with their shitty plastic pyramid bags.
Yes, I was rather annoyed that the last Earl Grey and green tea bags I bought were individually wrapped in cellophane. I live in a food desert, so doubly annoying since I traveled a significant distance for them.
Do worry, there is micro plastic in the tea and in the water
Also in your blood, brain, tissue, children, pets, …
PFAS, PFAS for everyone!
A part of us will live forever! Join my Church Of The Forever Chemicals.
I drink tea from similar bags and they look the same but they are actually biodegradable SOILON bags, maybe this one is too?
Is it actually biodegradable or this “”““biodegradable “”””" crap, that technically does break down, but takes 400 years under specific conditions to do so?
It’s PLA derived from cornstarch, breaks down in two years.
How do you know it’s plastic? I doubt that it is. Fabric can be made airproof by wetting it. That’s how you can use your pants as a life vest too.
I was in a supermarket recently, and looked at the tea selection (I usually buy it at a more specialized place). There were almost no options without bags; quite disappointing.
Of course it’s healthier. Did you put 40 sugar cubes in your cup of tea? Probably not.
