Wednesday, October 8, 2008

A cautionary tale about tea


Tea: a beverage made by steeping leaves in water.
How simple and quaint you are my morning beverage.
How can you possibly be messed up with plastic?
Oh let me count the ways....
Some tea has plastic cellophane on the outside of the box you buy it in, some has the bags individually wrapped in plastic on the inside...some tea has BOTH! Really it is too much. In the store I have opened boxes to look inside and then put them back on the shelf, I have shaken boxes to listen for a paper sound or plastic sound on the inside. Some individually packaged tea comes in those little tear open envelops that seem plastic-y as well as paper-y...what is this miracle material? I give up. Nicely packages tea bags are wonderful, but I think today was my last purchase of this modern convenience. It is all loose leaf-all the time for me (after I finish what I bought today :).

2 comments:

Unknown said...

the plasticky/papery ones are probably (not totally sure about it, though) coated paper. it's exactly that, paper that has been coated with a polymer emulsion. the amount of polymer, which is another way of saying plastic, used is probably a 5% of what it would be if it was only made in plastic. however, composed materials are much more difficult to recycle than what are called "monomaterials" (pure paper, plastic or else)

Meg said...

Ugh! I hate tea from tea bags! Why does anyone pay extra for all that packaging and the icky taste of the bag? I know bags are supposed to be convenient, but tea strainers aren't expensive and they're easy to use. When my husband makes iced tea, he just sits a regular mesh strainer in the pot of water.