top of page
Search

Plastic in Tea Bags, and the Fine Art of Not Panicking

  • Writer: Sue Leonard
    Sue Leonard
  • 5 hours ago
  • 3 min read

Our book group was peacefully sipping tea and discussing The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane when someone casually dropped a bombshell:


“Did you know teabags are full of microplastics?”


cup of tea with microplastics created by Bing Image Creator 2/21/26
created by Bing Image Creator 2/21/26

What?


Apparently, tea bags can release staggering amounts of microplastics into your cup. (1,2) Polypropylene heat-sealed bags? About 1.2 billion tiny plastic pieces per milliliter of tea. Billion. With a B. Nylon-6 bags release 135 million. Even cellulose bags release millions of nano-range particles. I wonder who's counting those plastics, and how long it takes to count to a billion?


Most days I drink a quart of tea. Made with tea bags.


And here I thought tea was healthy. Harvard Health says green and black tea may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. It may improve heart health, boost focus, and support metabolism. (3)


Don’t you hate it when you think you’re doing something virtuous for your health and it turns out to be… less virtuous? Apparently, it may also turn me into a moderately flexible storage container.


And it’s not just tea. Fortune says you can ingest millions of microplastics per year from meat alone. Vegetables can contain them from irrigation water. So now, not only do we have cholesterol clogging our arteries, we might have polypropylene hitchhiking along. At least there’s a pill for cholesterol.


As for me, I had always felt slightly smug about food storage. I use glass containers. I'm lazy and they are very efficient. Store, microwave, eat—all in one.


Then I remembered the plastic clamshell I bring my dessert home in. And the frozen dinners I heat in their tidy little trays. And the yogurt cups. And the salad bags I buy.


Suddenly, I’m wondering: how much of me is plastic at this point?  


I briefly thought about calculating how many microplastics I consume. How many milliliters are in a quart of tea?  946? With my aversion to numbers, I’m freaking out. I may need an accountant. Or a forensic auditor. Or a psychiatrist.

 

Given my brittle bones, this could actually be an advantage. Do I ingest enough microplastics to supplement my fragile bones?   Who needs Boniva shots if you’re partially reinforced with polypropylene? With the hundreds of things that show up in my bloodwork, they don’t test for plastics. Perhaps instead of a blood test, I can ask for a materials report. But if you are worried, you can get a test kit for only $120. (4)


Are these plastics the reason I’m getting stiff as I age? The doctor says it’s arthritis and “normal aging.” But what if I’m just slowly being laminated?


If I fall, will I bounce?


We all laughed at that famous line in 1967's The Graduate: “There’s a great future in plastics.” It was satire. Now it feels less like satire and more like a prophecy.


And then there’s Monk. Remember the theme song? “It’s a jungle out there… poison in the very air we breathe…” (5) I used to think Adrian Monk was neurotic. Now I’m starting to think he was simply ahead of his time. Maybe we’re all one news article away from swearing off plastic entirely and eating only what we grow ourselves.

woman worrying about microplastics in food - created by ChatGPT 2/21/26
created by ChatGPT 2/21/26

The real problem is that I mentioned the tea bag issue to a few friends.


Big mistake. Now there is a small task force googling “microplastics in food.” By tomorrow afternoon, there will be a breakout discussion at lunch. By next week, someone will give a presentation: Loose Leaf Tea: The Path to Longevity.


All because we were innocently trying to discuss a novel.


On the other hand, I’m almost 80. I’ve already outlived the life expectancy for people born the year I was born. Many of my friends have passed on. At this stage, I’m less worried about trace amounts of nylon-6 and more worried about missing dessert.


If microplastics are what finally take me out, it will not be because I skipped joy. It will be because I enjoyed a quart of tea, a reheated frozen dinner, and ate something chocolate from a clamshell container.

woman drinking tea, eating frozen dinner created by ChatGPT 2/22/26
created by ChatGPT 2/22/26

Besides, worry is more likely to kill me than microplastics.


So for now, I’ll keep drinking my tea.


References

             

© 2023 by Train of Thoughts. Proudly created with Wix.com

bottom of page