New to permies

Hi I’m new to permies, got on because of concern with Red Rose tea bags. They definitely burn like plastic.
I am a retired Auto Mechanic and construction teacher. I keep all my friends old cars running and in good tune. I believe a well maintained older vehicle is better for the environment than building a new one.

Hi Martin, welcome to Permies! Sounds like you have some really useful skills.

I didn't realize that about the tea bags, but did figure out several years ago that both tea bags (all kinds) and coffee filters don't decompose in the compost. I assume it's because they are made out of some sort of polyester or artificial paper. Did you find any discussion about that here? I'd be interested to know what folks do with them other than throw them away.

I can't speak to those particular tea bags, however it is known that many tea bags today are made of plastic (PET, nylon), and through use they shed plastic fibres/micro-plastics.

Apparently a researcher had the idea to strain her tea looking for just such particles, and yes, it is concerning what they found.

Human health risks may not be clear, but generally it's hard to advocate for anything that sheds such particles...



https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/tea-bags-plastic-study-mcgill-1.5295662


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49845940

Welcome! It's a world of knowledge here.

I was also extremely disappointed the first time I found a teabag in the middle of heavily composted material. I thought I was doing right dropping them in the compost bucket only to end up consistently fishing them out ever since. One of my goals this year is to stop using bags and only buy bulk or grow my own. Current events make buying bulk difficult though. It's like everyone thinks the packaging plants are all sanitary so anything wrapped in plastic must be safe. I'd rather take my chance in the bulk bins but the option is no longer there.

Hi Martin,
The trouble with modern cars is that they are loaded with gadgets to appeal to the new car buyer, also the combustion has been strangled over the years to give "cleaner" but less efficient burn so fuel economy has not improved as much as it could have done.  Our newest running cars are a pair of 1990s volvos (one petrol, one diesel).  The diesel was bought as a non runner with a badly snapped camshaft, but otherwise good.  The petrol does nearly 50mpg on a good run, which isn't so bad for a 5 seater estate car.  We often get distracted designing our 'perfect car' assuming that legislation could be somewhat revised (and don't get us started on self-driving cars)!
Most teabags in the UK have thermoplastic (I think it is polypropylene) fibres in them to make them stronger and help seal the edges.  It used to annoy me to find the teabag ghosts in my compost.  We swapped back to using loose leaf tea at home, and there are no more new ghosts now.  Some tea brands are supposedly going away from plastic now, there was quite a bit on the news a couple of years ago about it.
(Ooops...overlapped with the previous two posts)

Martin Wood wrote:Hi I’m new to permies, got on because of concern with Red Rose tea bags. They definitely burn like plastic.
I am a retired Auto Mechanic and construction teacher. I keep all my friends old cars running and in good tune. I believe a well maintained older vehicle is better for the environment than building a new one.

Welcome! Being an auto mechanic is such a skill. What's your favorite make to work on? My experience is that Ford breaks the most often. haha