
Some tea bags may shed billions of microplastics per cup - Sgt_Apone
https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/tea-bags-plastic-study-mcgill-1.5295662
======
simias
Loose tea is often cheaper and of better quality in my experience. If you brew
tea a lot using a reusable strainer seems like a much better choice. I'm also
entirely convinced that these plastic pyramid-shaped bags are pure marketing.
Then again, I find Lipton tea absolutely terrible regardless of the shape of
the bag.

~~~
roboys
My buddy used to work for Lipton. He explained that they use the cheapest
grade of tea (dust) available. Also many tea companies mix non-tea additives
(fillers) to their tea bags.

After hearing this I decided, if it's not full loose leaf, I don't drink it.
We found that companies like Elephant Chateau
([http://elephantchateau.com](http://elephantchateau.com)) deliver the 3
highest grades of tea direct from Ceylon mountain estates with the option for
plant-based pyramid bags (soilon) or a free stainless steel infuser.

Bonus, the tea actually tastes like tea and is tasty enough to drink plain
unlike Lipton dust. It always funny to hear people promote all the health
benefits of tea then turn around and dump 100 grams of sugar into a cup to
make it palatable.

~~~
brokenkebab
To be fair, bagged tea exists because there are lots of buyers who only want
quick refreshing non-coffee caffeine, and don't care for taste that much. Or
sometimes they just want a background for those 100 g. of sugar you mentioned.
Tea dust is a perfect match for this market, because it releases everything it
holds to water immediately, while whole leaves may require some patience, and
proper procedure.

~~~
mumblemumble
FWIW, I'm personally fond of tea dust for cold brew, too. This summer I've
been very much enjoying gyokuro dust steeped overnight in the fridge as my
morning beverage. Not only is it less expensive than the whole leaf stuff
(essentially free vs. some of the most expensive tea I own), but I think that
works better with that brewing method, too.

Probably the main reason I don't use Lipton instead of the good stuff when I'm
making cold brew is that I dislike all the packaging waste. Between the
brewing method and the serving temperature, I don't necessarily find the taste
alone to be enough better to justify the higher price.

~~~
ozzmotik
where do you get your gyokuro from? the last time I had it was literally
almost a decade ago and I absolutely loved it but I haven't been able to
really find it except for expensive online retailers that strike me more as
vanity brands than anything. but if you know of any good sources, id love to
check them out

~~~
uadjet
[https://www.hibiki-an.com/sp/index.php/cPath/21](https://www.hibiki-
an.com/sp/index.php/cPath/21)

This is a farm I quite like. They're high quality and not a terrible price
point since your buying directly from the farmer without a middleman.

------
mikestew
Ugh, yet another "hmm, never thought of that" thing to worry about, but it
comes at a good time. I was just giving thought to going to back to loose leaf
and a tea ball as I was preparing some Trader Joe's Earl Grey that comes in an
individual plastic wrapper, along with a string and a bag, and whatever else.
For a cup of tea. I'm one step away from a Kuerig. Other brands in the
cupboard aren't a whole lot better on packaging.

And now plastic in my tea. The wife's got to have a tea strainer in here
somewhere...

~~~
okcando
I've been trying to avoid groceries that come with single-use plastic and it's
tough. Grapes and cherry tomatoes come in plastic bags or cartons, even at
salt-of-the-earth type places. Meat or cheese from the deli gets a zip lock.
There's no way to use the olive bar without grabbing a plastic carton, in
various sizes.

I wouldn't have even suspected the tea bags themselves. I assume some of them
are still made with natural fibers but how would you know?

~~~
a-wu
At the higher-end grocery stores near me (Whole Foods, Nugget, etc), you can
bring your own container and tare it before filling. Maybe you can see if your
local grocery store can do this at the deli/olive bar?

~~~
sixstringtheory
I've been doing this a while. At the big stores, cashiers are always happy to
do it, it's just a mild inconvenience because they rarely know how to tare on
their machines–they always have to call over a manager and figure it out
together. I figure if enough people do it, they'll get used to it, but I don't
hold hope for that, judging by the stares we get from everyone waiting in line
behind us. It feels like the average person feels more averse to what we're
trying to accomplish.

Our local co-op is a lot more streamlined for this, they even do periodical
sales for people who bring reusable containers.

Our next goal is to bring our own containers when we eat out, in case we don't
finish the food and want to bring the rest home. Often times we purposely
order more than we can finish so we get a greater variety of things to share
and a whole extra meal the next day.

------
buckminster
Some of these fancy bags (e.g. from tea pigs) are made from polylactic acid.
This is derived from corn starch and used in temporary medical implants (it
degrades to lactic acid) so hopefully it's safe.

~~~
SeaSeaRider
Thanks, I’m a Tea Pig drinker, was looking for this comment.

------
AdmiralAsshat
I drink a decent amount of tea, and I feel like this is largely confined to
the mid-grade teas that are fancier than your basic Lipton or Twinings, but
not-so-fancy as to be loose-leaf.

I'm thinking specifically of stuff like Harney and Sons, that you often see
for sale at your nearest B&N or Starbucks: [https://www.amazon.com/Harney-
Sons-Hot-Cinnamon-Spice/dp/B00...](https://www.amazon.com/Harney-Sons-Hot-
Cinnamon-Spice/dp/B0065JA1IQ/)

I also see grocery-store versions at Target and such. Those appear to be the
ones that employee the plastic triangle satchet. The cheaper stuff, from what
I can tell, is still using paper.

~~~
bstar77
Many cheap Lipton teas have this type of sachet. Using this plastic is a
horrible trend and I'm not sure how it started. My worry was always more about
leeching, but the microplastic results might even be more disturbing. Such a
shame that a natural simple solution is compromised. I'm sticking to my
looseleaf.

[https://www.amazon.com/Lipton-Tea-Fruits-Rouges-
Red/dp/B00JN...](https://www.amazon.com/Lipton-Tea-Fruits-Rouges-
Red/dp/B00JNS8L9C/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?keywords=lipton+iced+tea+sachet&qid=1569434867&sr=8-2-fkmr0)

~~~
AdmiralAsshat
If I had to _guess_ , the "plastic triangle" is a bit larger and would
potentially allow larger tea-leaves to move more freely within the water and
infuse better.

The cheapest end of commercial tea bags are all basically _tea powder_ , so
they don't need the larger bags to infuse.

~~~
bstar77
That's possible, but I think you've already reached a point of diminishing
returns with a standard teabag. They do have a more premium feel, so it's
probably a combination of perceived quality and cost savings.

------
krumpet
The use of "some" and "may" in titles always bothers me. Seems like there
should be more concrete language available to state the point the article is
attempting to make.

~~~
smacktoward
The flip side of this is that scientists are terribly difficult people to get
to not hedge their statements.

It's just a consequence of the scientific mindset -- scientists are aware that
today's results are always provisional, someone may come along tomorrow with a
new discovery that overturns them. So they tend to avoid making definitive
statements like saying something applies to _all_ things, or that some thing
_is_ , favoring less definitive statements like something applies to _some_
things, some thing _may be_ , etc.

~~~
krumpet
I would prefer something similar to, "Test of single plastic teabag shown to
release billions of microplastics and nanoplastics".

Accurate without overpromising.

------
julianz
This is bad, but most "paper" tea bags still include plastic in their
manufacture as part of the heat sealing. English article about which brands do
and don't here, note that it's all the mass market brands that include
plastic, so that's most of the market.

[https://www.countryliving.com/uk/create/food-and-
drink/news/...](https://www.countryliving.com/uk/create/food-and-
drink/news/a3291/plastic-tea-bags-environment/)

~~~
city41
This looks to be an equivalent US article:
[https://www.becausehealth.org/plastic-in-my-tea-
bag-26189340...](https://www.becausehealth.org/plastic-in-my-tea-
bag-2618934044.html)

I was happy to see Celestial Seasonings have no plastic. They also don't have
the string, tag or staple, which I always appreciated.

------
shanecleveland
I drink tea over coffee (for digestive reasons), and I assume I am missing out
on really good tea. Any readily-available loose-leaf tea recommendations?

~~~
madhadron
I mail ordered from TeeGschwendner
([https://www.teegschwendner.de/en](https://www.teegschwendner.de/en)) for
years, and their quality is very solid. I stopped because our local yarn store
(!) had a truly excellent looseleaf tea selection.

Sadly, going to an upscale tea place in an urban area does not guarantee you
decent tea, nor are places consistent. There are places that have nice blacks
and greens, but utterly miserable rooibos (this is quite common).

~~~
shanecleveland
Thanks. I bought some loose black tea from a shop in NYC's Chelsea Market last
year. I figured I would be in for a treat, but it was completely bland and
tasteless. Been hesitant to splurge much since then, but will definitely be
checking these recommendations.

------
ljcn
I wonder how this compares to the several grams of plastic per week consumed
from drinking water.

[https://phys.org/news/2019-06-consume-credit-card-worth-
plas...](https://phys.org/news/2019-06-consume-credit-card-worth-plastic.html)

~~~
graeme
That's disturbing. Can any consumer grade filters remove plastics that small?

~~~
rcMgD2BwE72F
Just stop drinking bottled water.

~~~
dpcx
That article also suggests tap water contains plastics, so "stop drinking
bottled water" will help, but doesn't remove it all from the equation.

------
cmoscoe
There have been a lot of news stories about microplastics being basically
everywhere recently.

Is there any good research on if it's a problem? What are the effects on
humans of consuming them? What are the effects on aquatic ecosystems, etc?

------
mijoharas
Billions of microplastics... why don't they just say thousands of plastics?

~~~
mekoka
Because graphite is not diamond.

------
tripzilch
> the tea bags released microplastic and even smaller nanoplastic particles —
> and not just the hundreds or thousands Tufenkji had been expecting.

this is a misleading title. if one microplastic is a thousand nanoplastics
then obviously it's going to be _trillions_ of nanoplastics and billions of
microplastics.

> "We were shocked when we saw billions of particles in a single cup of tea,"
> she said.

So if you get this "bubble tea" with tapioca balls in it, are they macro
particles?

~~~
_carl_jung
No, because it depends on how it's breaking down. If you have one cohesive
sheet of plastic, it would be wrong to say that you have trillions of
nanoparticles of plastic.

The concerns with plastics that break up into many smaller pieces and enter
the body and wider ecosystem are different (and potentially worse) than the
concerns of the impacts of a single macro piece.

------
segfaultbuserr
> _But it 's not known if that poses health risk_

This is the big question. I think people around the world have been ingesting
microplastic for 30 years or longer, yet there's no reported case of any
direct toxic effects. So I guess microplastic doesn't have immediately effects
on health, but I won't be surprised if future studies find longterm effects,
such as increasing the risk of cancer, damage to the circulatory system or the
brain.

Overall, I think we must take actions immediately for solutions, but I won't
particularly worry about this problem and I'll continue buying bottled water.
It's not unlike the air pollution in the 20th century, one has to live with
it.

Nevertheless, "microplastic is going to kill all of us" surely is going to be
the trope of the next decade.

See also:

* Microplastics found in 93% of bottled water tested in global study [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16793888](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16793888)

* Microplastics found in 90 percent of table salt [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18248471](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18248471)

* Microplastics Are Blowing in the Wind [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19672514](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19672514)

* Microplastics found in supermarket fish, shellfish [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14245133](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14245133)

------
sleavey
Plastic tea bags aside, I was shocked to learn that many paper tea bags still
use plastic glue [1], which can contaminate compost.

[1] [https://www.countryliving.com/uk/create/food-and-
drink/news/...](https://www.countryliving.com/uk/create/food-and-
drink/news/a3291/plastic-tea-bags-environment/)

~~~
londons_explore
There really aren't many glues which are compostable, non-plastic, non-toxic
and can withstand 10 minutes of boiling water.

~~~
NietTim
Are staples bad for compost? I've had some teabags that used staples, they
worked fine for the purpose

~~~
srbby
Staples can't be microwaved. Yes I know, you can microwave the cup and then
put the bags in, but some people make that mistake and (rightly) freak out
when they see the fireworks.

~~~
markrages
Staples microwave OK. A microwave's wavelength is about 12 cm. A staple is a
small fraction of that and won't couple much energy.

~~~
vonmoltke
Not to mention the water it is submerged in absorbs the actual radiation, so
it generally doesn't even make it to the staple to begin with (at least, if
you push the bad down to flood it before heating).

------
meristem
The other problem, in the US at least, is that many coffee shops and
restaurants are sellers of a popular brand of tea that comes with plastic mesh
bags (Might Leaf) yet have not thought through/do not understand (/do not
care?) they are mixing compostable matter with non-compostable matter. The
results are tea in the trash or plastic in compostables.

------
yetanotherjosh
Not a single mention in this thread of a gaiwan.

It's stunning how there's an ancient, effective, wasteless, flavorless,
attractive and elegant alternative to tea bags that western culture simply has
no clue about. The Chinese and other asian cultures have been using it for
thousands of years. (Or at least since the Ming dynasty, and far earlier if
you include the "tea bowl" precursors.)

There is zero need for a tea bag when you have such a simple, elegant, and
effective ceramic dish in which to steep tea.

That and the fact that tea bag tea is virtually synonymous with ignorance of
the full range of quality that exists in the world of tea, as far I can tell.
The good teas from around the world just do not come in tea bags, and
routinely when I share them with friends who think tea comes in tea bags, they
are blown away.

------
inimino
If you want good tea:

Forget about Lipton, Celestial Seasonings, anything that comes in tea bags, or
has a name brand on it.

If there's a Chinatown or international market street in your area, go there.
Ask around for where there's a tea shop.

A good tea shop will offer to make you some tea when you walk in. Accept and
try whatever they give you. Buy what you like. There are hundreds of varieties
of green tea alone, not to mention white, black, oolong, pu-erh, etc.

Tea is sold loose and by weight. When you make it, you can put water just off
the boil in a tall glass with the tea leaves. They will sink to the bottom and
you don't need to filter it. Later you can get more sophisticated about your
brewing and buy a clay teapot, or a special glass flask with a pop-in
stainless steel strainer at the mouth.

------
piercebot
Lots of comments promoting loose-leaf teas. My favorite suppliers are:

\+ [https://www.meimeitea.com/](https://www.meimeitea.com/)

\+ [https://yunnansourcing.com/](https://yunnansourcing.com/)

If you live in the DC Area, Victoria (who runs Meimei Fine Teas) hosts tea
classes, and is happy to share stores of her annual tea sourcing trips to
China. Really high quality products from a trustworthy source.

There's something really special about knowing trusting an individual (rather
than a company) to deliver you a fantastic product and experience.

~~~
ryannevius
Thanks for these. I've been looking for an alternative to
[https://www.rareteacompany.com/](https://www.rareteacompany.com/) – which
also supplies great tea, but seems to have issues (reliably) shipping
internationally.

------
8bitsrule
Lipton tea in mainstream US stores has always suffered by comparison to the
English brands. (Tea-drinking is relatively uncommon in the US.)

If they even have any, many US restaurants will often serve tea that's
obviously been open-to-the-atmosphere for a long time. They just don't know
any better.

In the northern US, we could border-cross to buy Canadian teabags which were
far better than US bags ... owing, no doubt, to the number of Canadians of UK-
extraction. (Which may also explain why most Canadian beer is better.)

------
hammock
The good thing, if you can call it that, is PET and nylon (what these silk
teabags are made of) are some of the least reactive and most human-safe
plastics you can put in your body.

~~~
rectangletangle
Researching this it seems like PLA is also common. "Plastic" is a super vague
term, and it seems like non-petroleum plastics are the norm for this
application. One benefit is that these types of plastics readily biodegrade
into lactic acid (which naturally occurs in many foods). From a health
standpoint it seems like they could be safer than some petroleum based
plastics. Would be interested to learn more from someone who knows this area
better.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid)

------
ciconia
One should also mention that tea is an imported good in most developed
countries. It's externalities and environmental impact go far beyond
microplastics.

------
emptybits
I hope this news tempts some convenience-tea drinkers to explore the
incredible world of loose, whole leaf tea.

Many aromatic and delicious rabbit holes await you if you start to explore the
original world of tea which is still very much alive and well.

All the styles and sub-styles of Chinese and Japanese teas are rewarding to
prepare and serve and drink. Smaller footprint for processing, packaging,
transport, storage, and waste.

------
blue_devil
Lidl (in Europe) has pyramid teabags that look the same but are made of
cellulose and bio-degradeable (according to the packaging).

------
ilyagr
I am a fan of buying empty tea bags and then filling them with loose-leaf tea.
The more enviromentally friendly way to have tea that is not oversteeped would
be to use a metal strainer, but those can be a pain to clean.

I didn't know to check what those bags are made of, but now I do.

~~~
fiblye
I use a Japanese teapot, and most have a metal mesh inside. You can just give
it a rinse with water after using it and you’re pretty much done. If you’re
using decent quality tea leaves, they’ll expand to a pretty large size within
the pot and there’s really nothing to get caught in the filter. Just flip it
over and dump it.

Definitely a worthwhile purchase if you’re a big drinker.

Here’s an example:
[http://kyonagomi.ocnk.net/data/kyonagomi/product/20141028_ki...](http://kyonagomi.ocnk.net/data/kyonagomi/product/20141028_kiusuhimetu/RIMG0142.JPG)

------
guelo
My pet peeve is piping hot coffee which is brewed or delivered using plastic.
It is almost impossible to buy prepared coffee that doesn't come in contact
with some kind of plastic. I don't trust any of it.

------
agumonkey
Very slightly related. I thought I could throw tetley tea bags in the yard,
turns out they do not biodegrade at all. Even though the thing looks like
natural fibers.. maybe they're just thin plastic fibers ?

------
alexandercrohde
Commentary published in Environmental Health Perspectives in April 2010
suggested that PET might yield endocrine disruptors under conditions of common
use and recommended research on this topic.[26]

------
magic_beans
I wish they had reported the brands :/

~~~
DMac87
This. How does one tell whether this affects a particular brand or not?

~~~
hettygreen
The article says that it is the "silken" pyramid shaped tea bags that are made
of plastic.

I buy tea loose-leaf at the asian grocery store and steep it in a glass coffee
press to filter out the leaves. Yay super cheap and no microplastics!

------
amelius
Are there devices that can count microplastic particles? If not, how would you
build one?

~~~
ineedasername
My guess is you take a very small sample, count the particles, extrapolate to
the whole (I suppose image recognition might automate this somewhat)

~~~
amelius
Yes but how do you distinguish the microplastics from small tea dust?

~~~
ddeck
With an electron microscope and infrared and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.
From the article:

 _The researchers counted the plastic particles by cutting open bags of tea,
removing the tea, rinsing off any pieces that might have come off during
cutting, and then steeping the bags in distilled water at 95 C. They then took
a sample, let the water evaporate, and counted the plastic particles under an
electron microscope, then extrapolated to get the amount in one cup. They also
used other instruments to identify the type of plastic in each bag._

 _The researchers also repeated the experiment with uncut bags that still
contained tea to make sure the cutting didn 't cause the bags to shed, and
with loose tea leaves, confirming that uncut bags shed microplastics too
(although they were harder to count) and the plastic didn't originate from the
tea itself._

The original study references the use of Fourier-transform infrared
spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS).

------
ghostbrainalpha
Guess its back to using my led ball tea steeper.

------
microcolonel
Part of the reason I don't use sea salt at home. Here in Canada we can pump
salt out of the ground and it's largely free of microplastics.

------
suyash
Starbucks uses them I believe.

------
craftinator
Billions.

------
wtdata
There is no going back about cleaning plastics by traditional methods now
unfortunately.

The only real solution I see is if we bio-engineer some bacteria/microorganism
capable of decomposing it and release it in the environment. It might be a
danregous proposition, but (expect the even more advanced and potentially
dangerous proposition of nanites) I can't see any other way of getting rid of
all the plastic we already put into the environment even if we stop producing
it.

------
wtdata
And add the problem with plastics with the fact that this marketing stunt with
pyramidal tea bags, occupies about 3x more volume and as such take 3x more
resources to store and transport than traditional tea bags.

------
droopyEyelids
Those fancy bags are called "sachets" in the tea world

~~~
jpittis
Which means “bag” in French

~~~
ljcn
Small bag. It's the diminutive of "sac" (bag).

------
rayiner
Modern tea paraphernalia is stupid. Like those fancy woven strings that act
like wicks and dribble tea down the side. It's hard to even find normal tea
anymore. I ask for tea and people ask "what flavor." And I'm like "tea
flavor." My Bangladeshi mom uses Lipton tea bags and a bit of milk. Should be
good enough for everybody.

~~~
mikestew
_My Bangladeshi mom uses Lipton tea bags and a bit of milk._

I hope that wasn't an appeal to some kind of authority. All that tells me is
that some Bangladeshi women have even worst taste in tea than this ignorant
American. There's quite a wide gulf between not wanting to consume the least
common denominator and making a lifestyle out of it. As for flavors, just
because one's view says tea should only come in one flavor doesn't mean
reality has to agree.

~~~
jolmg
> than this ignorant American

I can't see rayiner giving any indication that they were American, though.

~~~
mikestew
No, _I 'm_ the ignorant American. Lipton is suitable only for iced tea. Then
again, maybe Lipton is fine and I just don't like orange pekoe tea.

