So, Here’s the Tea: Billions of Plastic Particles Could Be Steeping Into Your Favorite Drink
By Phoebe Opler
With an estimated 5 billion cups enjoyed each day, tea ranks as the second most-consumed beverage in the world, falling short only to water (Statista Research Department 2025). With its wide range of flavors, tea is more than just a drink to savor. Tea bridges history and culture for many across the world. When traveling to China, one can see the prestige of tea in the Tang dynasty poems, or one can experience “Tea Time” in England, when people take a break from their day to enjoy a toasty cup of black tea (Chatterjee 2022; Benn 2015). Across the globe, tea holds significant cultural value. However, what if this natural healer is actually poisoning us–not through the tea itself, but its packaging?
Plastic producers have created new single-use plastics for everyday items–and teabags are no exception. Naturally, this development raises concerns for the tea-drinking community, as it increases the chance of consuming microplastics and nanoplastics. Micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) are tiny particles smaller than 5 millimeters, ranging from the size of a pencil eraser to those invisible to the eye (Hernandez et al. 2019). With increasing reliance on plastic products, the number of MNPs in the environment and, therefore, in our food supply has increased (Cho et al. 2025). However, could plastics really be so terrible for us if they are “food grade” certified by the FDA (Hernandez et al. 2019)?
This is where Hernandez and her team come in: They are the first to closely study the possible negative effects of plastic teabags on human health. In their 2019 study, they sought to mimic realistic conditions and discover just how many MNPs we consume in a cup of tea. By submerging commonly used PET and nylon plastic teabags in hot water, researchers tracked whether plastic particles dispersed from the packaging into the water (Hernandez et al. 2019). To ensure this experiment measured only microplastic release from the teabags themselves rather than from the tea, Hernandez et al. (2019) first emptied four plastic tea bags and washed them, taking magnified images of their structure before steeping (Hernandez et al. 2019). Then, they placed the bags in water at 95°C for five minutes (Hernandez et al. 2019). When they were removed from the water, X-ray and infrared imaging were taken at the microscopic level, and the water was collected for further imaging and testing (Hernandez et al. 2019).
The results of this experiment were astounding, with the potential to transform how people approach making their tea. Hernandez and her team show that in only five minutes, about 2.3 million micro-sized and 14.7 billion submicron plastic particles are released in one cup of tea (Hernandez et al. 2019). Additionally, on average, around 20% of these particles were less than 100 nanometers in size, or the mere size of a flu virus in the human body (Hernandez et al. 2019)! Therefore, with each cup of tea we drink, microplastics could be swallowed as easily as a spoonful of sugar.
So, does this mean that we should stop drinking tea entirely? You can take a deep breath, no.
Then, does this mean that we should stop drinking tea with plastic teabags? Maybe.
Although it’s convenient, tea drinkers should refrain from drinking tea from plastic teabags. In the second part of their study, Hernandez et al. (2019) attempt to model the biological impacts of microplastics with Daphnia magna (D. magna), a planktonic waterflea, which can be a first step in predicting human health risks (Hernandez et al. 2019). In their findings, the team reported that when D. magna were exposed to microplastics, their swimming behavior and anatomical structure became abnormal, leading the researchers to believe that plastic ingestion may increase their predation risk and reproductive problems (Hernandez et al. 2019).
Since this study, other researchers have been asking similar questions, resulting in almost identical answers. In 2024, Qin et al. (2024) analyzed 22 female patients’ reproductive organs, and they were found to be contaminated with multiple types of microplastics, including PET, which were then correlated to a decrease in fertility (Qin et al. 2024). Since humans are ingesting plastics more regularly than ever before, and they are posing potential risks to our health, we must find ways to limit them as best we can.
This research should transform our approach to making tea: microplastic-free. Instead of the convenient and attractive plastic teabags, reach for loose-leaf tea at the store, as it offers the benefits of choosing the tea’s strength and flavor profile WITHOUT PLASTIC. Ultimately, the risk associated with plastic teabags does not mean that we have to abandon our culture; it just means that we should prepare it another way.
References
Benn, J. A. (2015). Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History. University of Hawai’i Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt13x1kn2
Chatterjee, A. K. (2022). The Gastromythology of English Tea Culture: On the UKTC’s Advertisements and Making Tea a “Fact” of English Life. Canadian Journal of History 51(1), 47-80. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/852515
Cho, C. Y., Gatz, L., Hammad, O. M, Haskett, J. D., Hite, K., Jones, A. C., Jordan, C. M., Lipiec, E., & Yen, J. H. (2025). Plastic Pollution and Policy Considerations: Frequently Asked Questions. Congressional Research Service. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48293. Accessed February 2025.
Hernandez, L. M., Xu, E. G., Larsson, H. C. E., Tahara, R., Maisuria, V. B., Tufenkji, N. (2019). Plastic Teabags Release Billions of Microparticles and Nanoparticles into Tea. Environmental Science & Technology 53(21), 12300-12310. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b02540
Qin, X., Cao, M., Peng, T., Shan, H., Lian, W., Yu, Y., Shui, G., & Li, R. (2024). Features, Potential Invasion Pathways, and Reproductive Health Risks of Microplastics Detected in Human Uterus. Environmental Science & Technology 58(24), 10482–10493. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c01541
Statista Research Department. (2025). Global Tea Consumption 2018-2030. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/940102/global-tea-consumption/?srsltid=AfmBOoodNUrBPZ28xnrsdI7JMkuVO4AYFVzloJh3M5a8tIEljqQ98sJu. Accessed February 2026.
