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What isn't releasing billions of microplastic particles? We're fucked.
When someone is getting laid and he drops a load in her, he’s probably injecting microplastics.
Just a thought for next time you are in bed with someone.
And if you don't- the condom? Also releasing microplastics. That glass of water you have afterwards because you're all hot and sweaty and thirsty? Also full of microplastics.
As long as you're using latex/nitrile condoms you should be good as latex and nitrile aren't plastics. Some of the alternatives for people with latex allergies can have plastic in them though.
gg plastic won
"This stuff is awesome! We can make it into any shape we want, it's cheap, and amazingly durable! MAKE ALL THE THINGS PLASTIC!"
We never stood a chance.
When we had no clue, I mean yeah, sucks, but live and learn. But the fact that all of this evidence has emerged and not much has changed is what's enraging.
The manufacturers had a clue long before we did. Just like leaded gasoline. And fossil fuels in general. And cigarettes. And so on. Nothing changes until governments step in, which sends the "captains of industry" into tantrums like the spoiled pissbabies they are.
That is even more enraging.
cigarettes
Speaking of, cigarette butts / discarded filters are a major source of microplastic pollution.
Smell that sheepskin condom?
You just inhaled plastics.
My tinfoil hat theory is that we're going to find out that toothbrushes are a major source of them
Oh they are.
Vegans hate this one trick to avoid microplastics from toothbrushes; horsehair toothbrush.
Also, you guys rinse your mouths, right?
This warning only applies to the pyramid tea bags and not the paper sachet.
It did list cellulose bags as one source, however I don't quite understand how. Additive to strengthen the material?
Plastic coating to make the bag more resistant to heat.
Oh my god. I think I'll just go back to my teapot.
Cellulose isn't plastic though, it's the sugar that makes up plant cell walls, like wood. Cotton fibers are 90% cellulose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose
I'm confused why they included cellulose without clarifying that it's not a petrochemical, unless cellulose micro and nano particles are also an issue now. Maybe I should read the original study...
What I meant to say is that the cellulose is coated with plastic. I learned this from another post in the same thread.
They close the bags with a dot of plastic based glue so it doesn't open
The square with crimped edges bags have plastic in the paper so that the edges will fuse closed.
Consumers are advised to ...
Consumers are advised to check whether tea bags in their region are even made of these materials.
Edit: Also, "billions"? The cookie warning is borked on the foodandwine.com article so I can't read it but: https://www.dpa-international.com/trends-and-features/urn:newsml:dpa.com:20090101:250109-99-540705/ "Tea bags releasing 'millions' of microplastics into tea, study shows" - where does that difference come from?
From the article:
To come to this conclusion, the team tested tea bags made from nylon-6, polypropylene, and cellulose, all typical packaging for teas. They found that when brewing tea, "polypropylene releases approximately 1.2 billion particles per milliliter, with an average size of 136.7 nanometres; cellulose releases about 135 million particles per milliliter, with an average size of 244 nanometres; while nylon-6 releases 8.18 million particles per milliliter, with an average size of 138.4 nanometres."
Cellulose is just plant fiber. You're literally boiling tea leaves which are themselves made of plant fiber! This is silly.
This is not silly; the study is not to determine if these are harmful or not, just what's released from boiling a teabag.
I'm not knowledgeable in this area of research nor am I about to spend an hour going over the paper to write this comment, but collecting data on seemingly mundane things is important too.
It's likely that the cellulose is treated or coated with something that breaks down during steeping.
I wanted to look this up with my brand of tea, and they do line their cellulose bags with plastic.
From https://tetley.ca/pages/faq
100% of our portfolio is in paper tissue format. Currently the majority of our tea bags are made from natural plant fibres with a thin inner layer of a plastic material called PP which enables the bags to be heat sealed to keep the tea firmly in the bag (0.03 g per bag). Recently, we transitioned our Orange Pekoe range to plant-based tea bags which are made with PLA tissue. PLA is a bioplastic derived from plant sources. Using plant-based tea bags across all our products is an important part of our sustainability strategy and commitment to reduce the use of non-renewable plastics in our business.
Ugh. I stayed far away from those David's Tea completely plastic bags but was really hoping that cellulose bags would be fine. Turns our they just have to put plastic in everything. I don't want plastic anywhere near hot water that I'm consuming.
I did the same with mine -- prepared for the worst, but pleasantly surprised:
WHAT IS THE FILTER PAPER MADE OF THAT YOU USE IN YOUR TEA BAGS?
The filter paper used for Yamamotoyama tea bags is made from 100% cellulose fibers (wood). Test results conclude that chlorine dioxide is not present in our tea bag filter paper. The filter paper is not coated with the compound epichlorohydrin, and does not contain any free epichlorohydrin. Yamamotoyama tea bag filter paper is machine folded and pressed, therefore no glue is needed or used. Our teabags are completely compostable.
Heh PLA. While it is made from starch it's also not (really) biodegradable, it just is in a very controlled environment.
And PLA still is plastic.
A lot of paper food storage products are coated with pfas. I'm not sure if tea bags are but it's a possibility.
How many micro plastics are released when I cry?
No it doesn’t. This study is unscientific garbage and should be retracted.
Their “simulation” of making tea involved 300 teabags boiled in 600ml of water at 95 C while being stirred at 750rpm for an unspecified amount of time. They then took counts using undiluted samples of that liquid.
It isn’t clear why they chose such an absurd methodology, but it is absolutely spurious to draw conclusions from this about teabags used under normal conditions.
I've worked in a lab before. You would do it this way for a bunch of reasons.
First it's more reliable to measure something if there's a lot than a little. The effects of your measurement uncertainties and your error professional goes down. So better to measure 300 teabags than just 1 if you can find out the same thing from doing it that way.
As others have said, 95 deg C is hot, but it is well short of a boil.
The magnetic stir bar doesn't blend the water, it just moves it around into a swirl, even at 750 rpm because it's small.
If the ideal study would be to steep 1000 teabags in teacups with just-boiled water and measure the micro plastics to see how much is released on average, I can see why they did it this way instead when their focus was on what type of plastic is released vs exactly how much. I'm not sure the food and wine journalist did a great job walking the reader through this though.
Has anyone checked how much particles I produce when I wash my fleece jacket.
Get yourself a Guppy friend 🙂
Certainly not an expert in the field here, but I'm not sure there's much environmental benefit from laundry bags of that sort, given the collected microplastics optimistically end up - Germany excluded - collated in your local landfill.
Guppyfriend even recommends sealing them in a container for disposal to ensure they don't blow around during waste collection and transport. This assumes of course that you can successfully transfer microplastic fibres from a large bag into a small container without spillage, but that's a matter separate from my conjecture.
Guppyfriend's FAQ
While I don't think any particular company that makes similar bags is purposefully guilty of this, the marketing strategy used to promote these as environmentally responsible products just smells like greenwashing to me.
The ones I've had are also made of synthetic materials, and so eventually break down and begin releasing their own fibres.
Frankly, the true environmental benefit I see is something I've never seen advertised: I can wash groups clothes I want kept from intermingling in the same load and therefore run the machine half as often.
No!
biodegradable tea bags
You want "compostable" or better, "home compostable". Biodegradable is a word that is completely twisted, and items that include plastics will use that word no matter how untruthful it is to the spirit of the meaning.
No it's not, because I use a stainless steel capsule and loose leaf tea, which is superior in every way (even if microplastics weren't an issue).
If you don't make your tea like this, do yourself a favor and upgrade to some quality loose leaf!
Edit: lol, I love that this is getting downvotes. Are there disposable teabag enthusiasts out there?
Your tea bag...
No, it's not, because I use something other than tea bags.
That's you. That's what you wrote.
OMG. That's a good way to start the new year. Now my daily tea is going to be filled with guilt and worry.
Just buy paper tea bags or loose leaf tea. The article is talking about those stupid nylon “pyramid” tea bags.