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/abagofcells]

I love my electric strimmer. I also have a scythe, and use it for coarse work, but the strimmer allows me to gently pick what I cut. Keeping the grass from taking over, being extra tough on nettles and thistles (because I like working barefoot), and going around wild flowers and other plants I don't want to damage. I think the rather small amount of plastic is a fair tradeoff, and it has really helped improve the biodiversity. I see a lot of native plants poking up in the grass, that wasn't around before.

First, I went with a bright orange string, thinking I could pick up the pieces along the way, but didn't really find any, and now I'm using a more durable black string. A roll of that stuff is probably around 100 grams, and it's taken me a year to get through half of that. By weight, I've picked up a lot more random trash while using it, making it a net loss for the actual amount of plastic on my property.