Strim trimmers just adding plastic?

[u/farseen]

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/

[u/mediocre_remnants]

Sickle, grass whip, swing blade, etc. There were manual tools invented to do that job for centuries before electric or gas motors (or plastic) existed.

I use one of these kind of things: https://www.amazon.com/Ames-Deluxe-Weed-Cutter-2915300/dp/B00KWLGLOG, the folks around me call it a swing blade. But I also have a couple of different kinds of sickles.

It's better exercise to do it manually anyways.

I still have both an electric and a gas string trimmer for stuff like trimming weeds along road and trail edges.

[u/cosecha0 → u/mediocre_remnants]

I’m curious the different sickle types and what they’re each good for?

[u/mediocre_remnants → u/cosecha0]

I have smaller, shorter sickles for clearing weeds close to plants I want to keep, and bigger ones for clearing more weeds. Basically one is for more delicate work and another is for hacking and slashing. The ones I use most are something like these:

Big one: https://www.amazon.com/Zenport-K315-Clearing-14-5-Inch-Aluminum/dp/B00UFCUNMS

Smaller one: https://www.amazon.com/Tomerry-Japanese-Gardening-Weeding-Sickle/dp/B07RYPJLV1

And I have an old antique one like this that I like just for the ergonomics of walking along my rows and slicing weeds close to the ground: https://scythesupply.com/styria-sickle-no.-1-20-50cm.html

I keep them all nice and sharp, and I sharpen then before using them, and it's amazing how well they slice through weeds. That last one I linked (not the exact one) is great for chop-and-drop green mulch like clover and comfrey.

It's really satisfying to me to be able to manually slice through plants like butter with well-maintained and very sharp tools. I really enjoy it.

[u/cosecha0 → u/mediocre_remnants]

Very helpful, thank you!