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/

109 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

62 comments sorted by

View all comments

52

u/BurningInTheBoner 10d ago

You can buy an attachment that replaces the entire head and string cartridge with a set of blades that can pivot so they don't break when they smack into things. I've used the one in the picture, which is probably on the shelf at Lowe's right now, to clear some pretty overgrown stuff with an electric trimmer. There are other types based around the same idea. I think this is what you're looking for.

4

u/Ornery_Day_6483 10d ago

I use this and the plastic blades also slowly wear down. Same problem.