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 🤷
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.
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 can't really find a source for it, but I remember the EU banning plastic in tea bags quite recently, a few years ago at most. Here in the Netherlands, a lot of tea bags contain(ed) plastic as some kind of sealant.
Also, a lot of tea contains sugar, for no good reason whatsoever.
In the form of fruit or added? If it's the latter, they will have messed up something as simple as tea even further. When they started packaging them in airtight plastic (preventing one from smelling what you are considering to buy) and wrap every single tea bag in plastic, I already got mad.
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
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
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Silk is expensive. Almost all pyramidal tea bags are nylon and/or polyester (at least in the US). Only premium stuff is going to be made of silk and they'll advertise it as such
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.
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.
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...
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.
But loose leaf tea is much better quality anyway and avoids the issue of what's in the bag entirely. They also have ceramic filters so you can completely avoid having plastic in contact with hot water
Yeah although a lot of it comes excessively packaged too.
I need to find a food coop that isn't overtaken by bougie morons with their activated biodynamic dolphin certified almonds and fulfils the original purpose of bulk bargaining by disempowered proles.
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.
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.
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
Is it actually biodegradable or this """"biodegradable """"" crap, that technically does break down, but takes 400 years under specific conditions to do so?
polylactid to be precise which is completely decomposable. paper tea bags on the other hand are often printed on a fine mesh of polypropylene which causes microplastic.
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.
That's what some hotels offer for their "Tea making facilities". We bring tea bags from home which are prefectly recyclable, even better since they don't use a metal clip anymore, but use stiching to connect the thread to the tea bag and the label.
Are you impressed by the shape? Does it make you feel upper middle class that your tea bags are this shape? Poor people don't drink tea made with bags of this shape! It's fancy! Now drink your microplastics!