Comment on Plastic tea bags

Sludgehammer@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• Zitronensaft@feddit.de ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Paper tea bags usually contain polypropylene or another plastic so they can be heat sealed shut. They aren’t fully compostable.

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  • HeartyBeast@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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    • GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Huh, TIL.
      They’re now using plant based PLA, at least.

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      • HeartyBeast@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        TIL too, thanks

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    • 0x0@programming.dev ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I’d except the land of Her Majesty the 5 o’clock Tea to be at the forefront of teatech.

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  • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Buy loose tea and tea bags.
    Test tea bags by burning them. No residue? They should be free of plastics.

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    • accideath@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Or: a reusable metal tea strainer. You just need to take 2 minutes every time to clean it but they’re no excess waste whatsoever

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      • peter@feddit.uk ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I tried this but I always end up with tea leaves floating around my cup

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  • Witchfire@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    They make disposable tea bags made of the same paper as coffee filters

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  • Carighan@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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…

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  • Sludgehammer@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Well shit. I guess I’m gonna have a lot of micro plastics in my compost then.

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    • Daxtron2@startrek.website ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Spoiler, you already do whether or not you compost those.

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      • Sludgehammer@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Don’t I know it. My house is right next to a highway and was apparently placed by someone who loved the sound engine breaking. I probably have tire rubber dust settling on everything outside.

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• barttier@feddit.de ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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

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  • Sludgehammer@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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    • barttier@feddit.de ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      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.

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• 0x0@programming.dev ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  But it’s cheaper and more convenient! Why’d you care about the future, you a commie? /s

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