I like how we all now know that microplastics and PFAS seriously contaminate our water sources, but there's no real thought about things like nanotubes doing the same thing. Wonder what consuming carbon nanotubes might do to us.
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UBC device uses wood dust to trap up to 99.9 per cent of microplastics in water
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Re: UBC device uses wood dust to trap up to 99.9 per cent of microplastics in water
#52I guess it's not possible to design a tea bag that's not made out of plastic but that can also survive the boiling hot temperatures?
believe it or not but it's OK to consume the tea leaves and drink slightly bitter tea ;). if you accept this the solution is just not to have tea bags at all. brew with the leaves and drink immediately, and if you forget, enjoy your bitterer tea!
You can also use a stainless steel infuser.
Re: UBC device uses wood dust to trap up to 99.9 per cent of microplastics in water
#53I guess it's not possible to design a tea bag that's not made out of plastic but that can also survive the boiling hot temperatures?
what you want here is loose leaf tea
Re: UBC device uses wood dust to trap up to 99.9 per cent of microplastics in water
#54I feel like we keep hearing about technologies like this that are going to change the world but none of them ever actually get implemented... just me?
Re: UBC device uses wood dust to trap up to 99.9 per cent of microplastics in water
#55I like how we all now know that microplastics and PFAS seriously contaminate our water sources, but there's no real thought about things like nanotubes doing the same thing. Wonder what consuming carbon nanotubes might do to us.
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Re: UBC device uses wood dust to trap up to 99.9 per cent of microplastics in water
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just weighed an empty teabag: 0.19g. I think it's highly likely that less than a gram of mass-produced paper has lower environmental cost than is needed to clean a whole teapot. You need hot water, and detergent, and the teapots are cleaned individually, so you have the overhead of heating intermittently used pipes etc. Teabags are a mature technology where production efficiency is highly optimized.
why do you need hot water?
Because it's far more effective at cleaning than cold water.
Re: UBC device uses wood dust to trap up to 99.9 per cent of microplastics in water
#57I guess it's not possible to design a tea bag that's not made out of plastic but that can also survive the boiling hot temperatures?
No, that's very possible. The problem is our obsession with making everything single-serve and disposable. I think this is what you are looking for: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=stainless+steel+tea+infuser+ball
You can even get them built in to a nice little pot. I had this one for a while https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01LZSA84J
Re: UBC device uses wood dust to trap up to 99.9 per cent of microplastics in water
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
that seems extremely unlikely
I just weighed an empty teabag: 0.19g. I think it's highly likely that less than a gram of mass-produced paper has lower environmental cost than is needed to clean a whole teapot. You need hot water, and detergent, and the teapots are cleaned individually, so you have the overhead of heating intermittently used pipes etc. Teabags are a mature technology where production efficiency is highly optimized.
I think it's a rounding error either way, but our pot for black tea only gets rinsed (usually cold), and our pot for herbal teas occasionally gets put inside the dishwasher. Not sure why you think teapots need to be washed individually.
I assume the environmental cost is dominated by other factors that apply in both cases: growing the plant, transporting the product, heating water to boiling temperatures.
Re: UBC device uses wood dust to trap up to 99.9 per cent of microplastics in water
#59I guess it's not possible to design a tea bag that's not made out of plastic but that can also survive the boiling hot temperatures?
What? Tea bags were made of cotton and paper decades before plastic came about. Plastic was likely introduced to lower costs and extend shelf life.
Re: UBC device uses wood dust to trap up to 99.9 per cent of microplastics in water
#60I feel like we keep hearing about technologies like this that are going to change the world but none of them ever actually get implemented... just me?
Not just you. Just sensationalist headlines (:
See also the dramatic groundbreaking new battery technologies that have keep getting reported for the last 30+ years. [1]
Not only is there a long lead time between proof-of-concept and scalable production even in the best case, but frequently these nascent technologies have serious drawbacks that aren't mentioned in the article.
[1] "Revolutionary battery checklist": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28025930
also: https://xkcd.com/882/ and https://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1623