Tested
Microplastics, tested.
We run the at-home kit on the things people actually drink from — filters, bottled water, tea bags — and publish what shows up. Every teardown ends the same way: don't trust the label, test it yourself.
Water filters
Does your filter actually remove microplastics? What each one is — and isn't — built to catch.
Filter Review
Does reverse osmosis remove microplastics?
Short answer: yes, by a huge margin. RO membrane pore size is 10,000x smaller than the smallest microplastic. The catch is whether your specific installation is actually working — which is exactly what the at-home kit verifies.
Filter Review
Does Brita remove microplastics?
The standard Brita pitcher is not certified to remove microplastics. It's certified for chlorine, taste, and some heavy metals. Here's what the pitcher actually does, and how to test your own for $50.
Filter Review
Does PUR remove microplastics?
PUR pitcher and faucet filters are certified for lead and chlorine — not microplastics. Here's what a PUR filter actually does, and how to test yours.
Filter Review
Does ZeroWater remove microplastics?
ZeroWater's 5-stage filter is better than a Brita. It's still a pitcher, not RO. Here's what the stages actually do, what ZeroWater is certified for, and how to verify yours.
Filter Review
Does Berkey remove microplastics?
Berkey claims >99.9% microplastic removal. The physics of the Black Berkey element is plausible, but testing has historically been in-house and independent verification is thin. Test yours with the kit.
Bottled water
The plastic usually isn't from the spring. It's from the PET bottle the water ships in.
Brand Test
Microplastics in Fiji water: premium source, same PET bottle.
Fiji is artesian water from a protected aquifer. It's still bottled in PET. The 2018 Orb Media study found microplastics in Fiji too. Premium source doesn't fix the shedding problem.
Brand Test
Microplastics in Dasani water.
Dasani was one of 11 brands in the 2018 Orb Media/SUNY study that found microplastics in 93% of bottled water. The plastic isn't from the source — it's mostly from the PET bottle.
Brand Test
Microplastics in Aquafina water.
Aquafina is PepsiCo's purified-water brand, one of 11 tested in the 2018 Orb Media study that found microplastics in 93% of bottled water. Here's what's in it and how to test your own.
Brand Test
Microplastics in Poland Spring water.
Natural spring water from Maine, bottled in PET. The category label describes the water before bottling. The plastic shows up after. Here's the data and how to test your own.
Field Test
Microplastics in SmartWater: the bottle that sat in a car for a year.
We ran an actual test. The bottle had been in a car for a year. Hot days, cold nights, compression. The filter came back so loaded it was hard to count individual dots.
Everyday items
Tea bags, pipes, baby bottles — the plastic sources hiding in ordinary routines.
Field Test
Do tea bags leak microplastics? I tested 3 brands.
I brewed three different tea bag brands and ran each one through the at-home Water Test kit. All three came back clearly positive — pink particles scattered across the filter under the blue light.
Research
Can the at-home kit detect microplastics from PEX pipes?
PEX is cross-linked polyethylene — the brightest polymer under Nile Red. The kit catches PEX flakes above ~10 microns the same way it catches LDPE. Size limits apply, and the interesting sample isn't the cold tap.
Research
Microplastics in baby formula: what the research says.
A 2020 Trinity College Dublin study found that preparing formula in polypropylene baby bottles releases 16.2 million microplastic particles per liter on average. Here's what's known, what isn't, and how to test your own bottle.
Research
Microplastics in breast milk: what the 2022 Ragusa study found.
Italian researchers detected microplastics in 75% of breast milk samples tested. Polyethylene, PVC, and polypropylene — the most common consumer plastics. Here's what was found, how it got there, and what you can actually do.