Scientists Reveal Simple Trick to Reduce Microplastics in Your Tap Water

Microplastics are everywhere—in our food, our water and even the air. Scientists and engineers around the world have developed all sorts of creative strategies to attempt to filter our these tiny plastic particles, but new research has revealed a simple yet effective solution for cleaning drinking water, which is probably already sitting in your kitchen.

Microplastics refer to any plastics smaller than 5 millimeters (0.2 inch) long. They can be found in industrial waste and beauty products but may also form during the degradation of larger pieces of plastic waste. Many of these plastic pieces end up in our oceans, which are estimated to contain somewhere between 50 and 75 trillion pieces of micro- and larger plastics, according to UNESCO's Ocean Literacy Portal.

These plastic particles contain chemicals that can interrupt our body's natural release of hormones, potentially increasing our risk of reproductive disorders and certain cancers. They can also carry toxins on their surface like heavy metals.

Over time, these microplastics can break down even further into so-called nanoplastics. These are so tiny that they can pass through our intestines and lungs directly into our bloodstreams, traveling through our bodies and into our vital organs, such as our hearts and brains.

With so many of these tiny particles in the ocean, it is perhaps unsurprising that they have ended up in our drinking water too. But thanks to new research from Guangzhou Medical University and Jinan University in China, it may be possible to remove over 80 percent of these tiny plastics with the help of a simple kitchen appliance: a kettle and a simple water filter.

In their study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters, the team, led by Zhanjun Li and Eddy Zeng, collected samples of hard tap water from Guangzhou, China, and spiked them with different amounts of nano- and microplastics. The samples were than boiled for five minutes and allowed to cool before the team measured the amount of free-floating plastic present in each sample.

Hard water is rich in minerals and produces small quantities of a chalky substance called limescale, aka calcium carbonate, when it is boiled. If you live in an area with hard water you will recognize this as the white scum floating on the top of your tea and coffee. In fact, as the water boils, this white scum encapsulates the plastic particles, separating them from the rest of the liquid.

If this liquid is then poured through a simple filter, like a coffee filter, the floating limescale, along with the encapsulated plastics, can be separated from the rest of the liquid. In fact, using this method removed up to 90 percent of the free floating micro- and nanoplastics present in the water.

Although these effects were most pronounced in hard water, this method did still remove around 25 percent of the nano- and microplastics present in soft water samples.

"This simple boiling-water strategy can 'decontaminate' nano- and microplastics from household tap water and has the potential for harmlessly alleviating human intake of nano- and microplastics through water consumption," the authors write.