Do you need another reason not to drink bottled water?
Image of plastic water bottles (Source Live and Let Fly. Creative Commons licence).
Bottled water is expensive, often not used or recycled, and potentially another waste product going to landfill. And now we also know it leaches microplastics into the water.
So you are drinking microplastics!
Microplastics are exactly what they sound like; tiny plastic fragments, less than five millimetres in size (but mostly invisible in a plastic water bottle). that come from the breakdown of larger plastic items or are manufactured small for use in products like cosmetics, textiles, and packaging. Invisible to the naked eye, these particles have become one of the most pervasive pollutants in modern life, turning up everywhere from deep-sea sediments to the air we breathe.
An Australian study by Samandra et al. (2022) from the University of Melbourne, has looked into this in detail, investigating the presence of microplastics in bottled water available on supermarket shelves. Researchers analysed multiple local and imported brands, identifying small polymer particles such as polypropylene and PET, materials commonly used in bottle caps and containers.
Results from the testing of 16 different water bottles.
Their findings confirmed what global research has long suggested: microplastics are widespread, even in products marketed as “pure” or “natural.” While the concentrations detected were relatively low, the study highlights how easily plastic can enter our food and water systems through packaging, handling, and environmental exposure.
Imported water has 4 times the concentrations of microplastics in the water, which we assume is related to a longer time has it to leach the microplastics, while on a ship and in storage.
You are not going to die from this! It is very low levels of concentrations, but it is also an issue in terms of the longer term bioaccumulation of the compounds.
And let’s be clear, any drink bottle will do something similar with leaching microplastics (e.g. soft drinks), not just bottled water.
From an environmental perspective, we are working on nature based solutions to reduce microplastics from entering waterways, beaches and oceans (See Aqua Build).
But our key message from this research is simply “just drink tap water!”