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Tea bags releasing 'millions' of microplastics into tea, study shows
(www.dpa-international.com)
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this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2025
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What do you mean plastic mesh heated to near boiling temperatures causes a release of microscopic plastic particles? That just doesn't make any sense at all!
Many tea bags are made from paper with added plastic fibers for extra strength. As you heat them, like when pouring hot water over them, some of the particles (both paper, plastic, and whatever other additives) release into your cup.
And I assume next you'll tell me that pouring boiling water into plastic bottles or maybe even Styrofoam cups is another way people introduce microplastics into their systems unwittingly. That's just too bizarre.
Well... pretty much all plastics shed microplastics, it's a matter of how much. Scratching, rubbing, heating without melting, or starting with loosely packed fibres... accelerate the process.
There's estimates that weekly we ingest enough microplastics to make a credit card, which is truly dystopian. I wonder how much more it was during my ballpen cap chewing phase. All the variety of compounds used to manufacture them, under more or less control, are a Pandora's box of possible issues.
I appreciate you commenting to me with full support and care for the topic at hand. It is quite educational for anyone who happens across it and doesn't already understand how simple it is for plastics to leech their way into basically anything, and I suspect the reason most places stopped using Styrofoam containers quite awhile ago (plus how absolutely terrible it is for the environment). I'm hopeful for a plastic free future, there are some really good alternatives coming down the pipeline for now and it will be interesting to see which of the various technologies becomes mainstream. I'm rooting for seaweed personally. I also really like the work that has been done with various fungi for form fitting packing supplies.