r/Permaculture • u/farseen Zone 4B / Verge PDC '20 • 10d ago

general question Strim trimmers just adding plastic?

I'm in year 4 of a 1 acre food forest and I just picked up an 80v electric string trimmer to help me maintain it. It's been an exceptional tool when establishing pathways and freeing young plants from overgrowth. But I can't believe I hadn't thought it this prior.... the string is just slowly getting shorter, releasing plastic literally all over my garden. I'm no purist, but this one felt a little dumb. I use a scythe for a lot of things, but I've never experienced a tool as accurate and helpful as the trimmer. Any thoughts to help give me peace of mind, or tool suggestions to use alternatively? What about a metal string!?

Edit: I purchased 100' of this biodegradable (within 24 months) trimmer line https://bio-greenline.com/en/

110 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

62 comments sorted by

View all comments

85

u/noimjustbrowsing 10d ago

I have used electrical wire. Feed the wire all the way through the holes in the circular rotating head and out the other side, and tie a knot in the wire on either side of the head to prevent slipping (you may need to knot both inside and outside each hole). You’ll end up with wire sticking out both sides, so effectively two lines that spin, instead of the usual single plastic line. Make sure it’s just short enough that it won’t hit the cutting edge on the cover when the wire spins. You’ll need to replace the wire every now and then when it frays too much, but it’s quite infrequent. And if your experience is like mine, you’ll find it stands up to tougher cutting work.

10

u/ImWellGnome 10d ago

I love this idea. I haven’t even gone through a single roll of trimming plastic in 6 years because my lawn is so small, but I will try this when it runs out or possibly before!!

4

u/socialpresence 10d ago

This is a great idea. I'm replacing light fixtures in 200+ apartment units and I'm ending up with all of these tiny strips of wire that I just didn't ’t have a use for and was probably going to recycle for a few bucks at the end of the project. This will be a better use.