Microplastics In Your Cup
Hot and cold drinks, everyday habits, and what we now know about hidden plastic…
What are you Drinking?
Think about your morning routine. You pour hot coffee into a paper cup with a plastic lid or brew tea from a bag lined with synthetic fibers. You might grab a soda or juice later in the day, maybe even an energy drink for a pick-me-up. What you cannot see are the microscopic plastic particles that leach from packaging or slip in during production. They swirl in the liquid, invisible to the eye, but still making their way into your body with every sip.
A new UK study tested 155 popular hot and cold beverages and found microplastics in every single one. The researchers also surveyed adults to see how much of each drink people consume daily. When the numbers were combined, the results showed that looking only at drinking water underestimates how much plastic we ingest. Coffee, tea, and soft drinks add far more to the daily total than we ever realized.
Which Drinks Had the Most?
Hot tea came out on top, averaging about 60 plastic particles per liter. Hot coffee followed with about 43. Iced versions had fewer, around 30 to 37 per liter. Fruit juices landed near 30. Energy drinks averaged 25. Soft drinks were the lowest but still contained around 17.
The particles were not just one kind. Most were jagged fragments, with some fibers mixed in. The common plastics were polypropylene, polystyrene, polyethylene, and PET, the same materials used in cups, lids, and bottles.
Figure 1: Average distribution (expressed as percent) of microplastic polymer types in the studied beverages. (Al-Mansoori et al. 2025)
What Was the Difference?
The study suggested that hot drinks pulled out more microplastics than cold ones with heat causing plastics in liners, lids, pods, and even coffee machine tanks to break down and release more microplastic particles. Cold drinks are not off the hook. They absorb plastics from PET bottles and caps, especially when shaken during transport or stored for long periods. And even aluminum cans were not totally safe. Some energy drinks in cans still had plastic particles, likely from production lines or added ingredients.
In short, the container matters almost as much as the drink itself. The type of plastic in the cup or bottle often matched the particles found in the liquid.
Should You Be Concerned?
When researchers combined this beverage testing with real drinking habits, they found the average adult in the UK takes in about 1.6 to 1.7 microplastic particles per kilogram of body weight every day just from drinks. For many people, that adds up to thousands of particles every year, much higher than earlier estimates based on water alone.
Although we do not yet fully understand the health effects of consuming microplastics, research has already linked them to inflammation, hormone disruption, and the potential to carry toxic chemicals into the body. These concerns are especially relevant when microplastics break down into even smaller particles, called nanoplastics, which can enter organs and tissues more easily.
So, the next time you sip your morning coffee or reach for a cold soda, you are also taking in something you cannot see. Microplastics are finding their way into drinks not because of anything you did wrong, but because packaging and production rely so heavily on plastic. And while these particles in beverages are troubling, the biggest contributor to microplastic pollution still comes from washing machine wastewater, which releases millions of fibers every single load. Together, these exposures remind us that plastic is now woven into daily life in ways we rarely notice. Seeing the problem clearly is the first step toward finding solutions that keep both our bodies and our environment safer.
How You Can Help
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About CLEANR
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Sources:
Al-Mansoori, M., Harrad, S., & Abdallah, M. A.-E. (2025). Synthetic microplastics in hot and cold beverages from the UK market: Comprehensive assessment of human exposure via total beverage intake. Science of the Total Environment, 996, 180188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.180188
Ullah, S., Ahmad, S., Guo, X., Ullah, S., Ullah, S., Nabi, G., & Wanghe, K. (2023, January 16). A review of the endocrine disrupting effects of micro and nano plastic and their associated chemicals in mammals. Frontiers in Endocrinology, 13, 1084236. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2022.1084236
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