Which garden tools contain no plastic, handle and coating included?
This category is being vetted. Nothing here is a recommendation yet.
Where plastic hides in garden tools
Garden tools get left in the rain, so makers coat them. Steel heads are painted or powder-coated, pruner blades get a nonstick fluoropolymer layer, and wooden handles are varnished or painted. Fiberglass handles are glass fiber in polyester or epoxy resin. Pruners carry rubber bumpers and cushions that are synthetic unless named. Bamboo rakes are bound with cord of unnamed fiber, and ties and twine are often polypropylene. Bare forged steel, oiled ash, hickory or beech, and sisal or jute cord have nothing coated on them.
What to check before you buy
- The handle: bare, oiled or waxed wood, or fiberglass, plastic or a rubber grip?
- The head finish: bare, oiled or patina, or painted, powder-coated or PTFE?
- How the head attaches: a ferrule, rivet or tang, or epoxy?
- Bumpers and cushions on pruners: natural rubber or none, or synthetic?
- Cord, ties and twine: sisal, jute or cotton, or polypropylene?
- The sheath: oiled leather, or nylon?