Do tea bags have plastic in them? Some do. How to tell

Some do: some bags are nylon or PET, and some paper bags are sealed with polypropylene. The “billions of particles” count is disputed.

Some tea bags are made of nylon or PET, which are plastics, and some paper bags are sealed with plastic. The famous “billions of particles” count is much less certain than the headlines said.

3 min read · Written by Ken · Checked Oct 2026 · 6 sources

Particles over 1 µm, per tea bag

2.3 million2019 study, from a dried sample

5,800–20,4002020 recount, checked one by one

Germany’s risk agency, 2025The 2019 counts of particles over 1 µm are “probably two to three orders of magnitude too high”. Source 3

The 11.6 billion headline is mostly specks smaller than 1 µm, and none were identified one by one. Figures as reported Source 1 Source 2 Source 3

Do tea bags have plastic in them?

Some tea bags do have plastic in them: some are made of nylon or PET, both plastics; those are the kind the 2019 study tested. Source 1

Some paper bags contain plastic too. A 2018 UK trade report said tea bags “use small amounts of polypropylene - a plastic - to seal the paper bags so the tea does not spill out”. Source 5 A 2024 lab study tested three bags sold in shops and found they were made of nylon, polypropylene and cellulose. Source 6

Where does the “11.6 billion particles” number come from?

From a 2019 study. Researchers emptied plastic tea bags, rinsed them, steeped them at 95°C, and reported that one bag released about 11.6 billion microplastics and 3.1 billion nanoplastics into a cup. Source 1 Source 3

Only about 2.3 million of those were larger than 1 micrometre. The specks were counted under an electron microscope after a sample of the water had been dried, and they weren’t identified one by one. Source 3

Was the tea bag study wrong?

Its count is disputed. A 2020 comment by other scientists, including Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), checked what each particle was made of and found 5,800 to 20,400 microplastics over 1 micrometre per bag. That is roughly 100 to 400 times fewer. Source 2 Source 3

The BfR says that when the water was dried, dissolved substances turned into solid specks that “can be incorrectly identified and counted as microplastic particles”. Its own tests found that most of the microplastic particles “were already present on the surface of the tea bags” and washed off, rather than coming from the bag material itself. Source 3 The original authors published a response to the comment Source 4; the BfR says it does not address the main points of criticism. Source 3

Are plastic tea bags bad for you?

On current knowledge, probably not. The BfR says the substances from tea bags “do not pose a health risk in the (very small) amounts reported”, and that a health risk from microplastics in food is unlikely. It also notes that data is still too thin for a full assessment of microplastics in the body. Source 3

A 2024 lab study put tea bag particles on human gut cells in a dish, but that isn’t the same as drinking a cup of tea. Source 6 Still, if you’d rather your tea didn’t steep in plastic, the swap is easy.

How can you tell if your tea bags have plastic?

Check the box or the maker’s website for what the bag is made of. Nylon, PET and polypropylene are all plastics. If it doesn’t say, ask the maker, or skip the bag: loose-leaf tea in an all-steel infuser means no plastic bag steeping in the hot water.

You’ll need loose-leaf tea; a teaspoon per cup is a common place to start. Plain paper bags are an option too, but some use plastic in the paper or seal, and packs rarely say.

Sources (6)