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Comment by sleavey | Hacker News Reader

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/...

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https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/food-drink/there-plastic-my-...

The best advice is drink loose-leaf.

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

Egg whites?

That sounds like a bacterial nightmare for a product that's going to sit in a mostly airtight container for months.

Even when dried and set? I'm having a lot of trouble finding info on the safety of it in food online, but it seems like egg whites have been used for centuries as a glue for a whole bunch of things.

Spider silk! :D

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

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.

Would there not only be a buzzing sound and lots of bubbles? I doubt there would be any sparks if the metal is submerged in water.

Surprisingly, you can microwave a stapled tea bag that's submerged in water.

You can also get away with microwaving metal spoons but _not forks_.

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.

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).

Anecdotally, the "Waste Wizard" app in Toronto specifies that normal tea bags should be composted, nylon and silk tea bags go in the garbage. I've always assumed they know what they're talking about, so I expect the recycling/compost system here can handle the staples.

There are not many types of tea which should be infused for ten minutes! Most "builders tea" in the UK get less than a minute, most just get dunked to colour the milk. The instructions say around three minutes. Loose leaf tea should be between three and five or more depending on grade.

However I did note that the plastic tea bags get in the cups in the USA for longer as the water is lower temperature. It appears as if American baristas use coffee brewing temperature for the teas so a customer has to leave the tea bag in for the length of the drink.

Does the bag have to be held by chemical means? Mechanical hold, for example a thread would work too.

I guess diffusers/loose tea it is. I just hate how annoying they are to clean with some of the finer black teas.

You can use string-and-paper based bags that you fill yourself. All the convenience of bagged tea, all the taste of looseleaf!

Teapot and tea strainer! Much easier to clean than infusers which often manage to be fiddly too.

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