Plastic tea bags
Plastic tea bags
I decided to have a green tea because it's healthier than soda. It's healthier, right?
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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.
You should probably try looking for local tea shops. They tend to just import the tea directly from distributors or even producers and bag it themselves. This might not be the cheapest option but easily the highest quality one.
If none are available nearby, hey, business opportunity!
I don’t seem to have any local stores nearby. T_T
Where're you from? Ordering from online tea shops works fine too.
I have been really disappointed by the times I've ordered from a shop online (even one that came highly recommended on forums) that I hadn't previously visited in person. So now I default to a shop that I stopped by on a trip to Chicago once: https://www.coffeeandtea.com/. They have a good supply of the basics (eg English breakfast tea) that are decent quality and very well priced, perfect for everyday tea. For special occasion teas, I was very impressed by a place in Portland, OR I visited: https://thejasminepearl.com/. A lot more expensive but quality to match.
Nowadays I try to make a habit of stopping by tea shops when visiting new cities, and taking note of which specialty teas each has, their price points, etc. I've about five or so that I rotate ordering from at this point.
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.
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.
My local coffee roaster also sells loose leaf teas from a local company, and their tea is excellent. I grab some tea when I refill on coffee.
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.
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.
Synthetic rubber like SBR: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styrene-butadiene
Tires and brakes are a major source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17201-9
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
Tires are generaly made from a kind of rubber, not plastic
Both are made of polymers.
Rubber, also known as latex, is naturally occurring polymer from the sap of a specific species of tree.
"Synthetic rubber", is in fact, plastic.
Po-TAY-to, po-TAH-to