Are tea bags loading your cup with microplastic when you steep them?
Yes. Most plastic and "silken" tea bags shed billions of microplastic particles per cup.
What's actually in it
Many premium tea bags are made from nylon or PET plastic, sold as "silken pyramid" bags. Even paper bags often have a thin plastic seal on the edges. When you drop the bag in boiling water, the heat softens the plastic and shoves particles into the tea.
The flakes are too small to filter out and end up in your cup.
What the research says
A 2026 study in J Hazard Mater tested microplastics released from tea bags into hot water and exposed lab animals to the leachate. The plastic from the bags caused fatty liver changes and oxidative stress in the animals at amounts close to what people drink. The team flagged tea bags as an underrated daily source of microplastic.
Earlier work has counted billions of particles per cup from a single pyramid bag.
Switch to loose-leaf tea with a stainless steel infuser. Or pick paper-only bags with no plastic seal: brands like Choice, Pukka, and Clipper print plastic-free statements on the box. Compostable corn-based PLA bags still shed in hot water, so they're not a great fix either.
The research at a glance
| Study | Journal | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Teabag-derived microplastics pose steatosis and oxidative stress-mediated toxicity in embryonic zebrafish. | J Hazard Mater | 2026 |
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