One simple method to remove microplastics from your drinking water

Tiny plastic fragments are everywhere, so much so that they’ve made their way deep inside our bodies. Studies in recent years have repeatedly warned about the health concerns caused by microplastics in drinking and freshwater.

From food to bottled water, these particles are entering human systems in alarming quantities. Now, new research suggests there may be a surprisingly simple way to cut down exposure—right at home.

Boiling as a low-tech filter

In 2024, scientists from Guangzhou Medical University and Jinan University in China tested how boiling impacts nanoplastics and microplastics (NMPs) in tap water. The researchers explained in their paper: “Tap water nano/microplastics (NMPs) escaping from centralized water treatment systems are of increasing global concern, because they pose potential health risk to humans via water consumption.”

To study this, the team added NMPs into both soft water and hard tap water (richer in minerals), boiled it, and then filtered the precipitates. The results were striking: in some cases, boiling and filtering removed up to 90 percent of the microplastics. The effectiveness depended on the type of water sample.As biomedical engineer Zimin Yu of Guangzhou Medical University and colleagues wrote: “This simple boiling water strategy can ‘decontaminate’ NMPs from household tap water and has the potential for harmlessly alleviating human intake of NMPs through water consumption.”

How it works

The method proved especially effective in hard water. As the water boiled, calcium carbonate, commonly known as limescale, was forced out of solution, forming chalky deposits. These crusts trapped plastic fragments on their surfaces, making them easier to filter out.The researchers noted: “Our results showed that nanoplastic precipitation efficiency increased with increasing water hardness upon boiling.”

Even in soft water, where less calcium carbonate is present, about a quarter of the NMPs were still removed.Any lime-encrusted particles left behind could then be strained out using something as simple as a stainless steel tea filter. The team emphasized: “Drinking boiled water apparently is a viable long-term strategy for reducing global exposure to NMPs.”While boiling water has long been a tradition in certain regions, it is not a global practice. As the researchers added: “Drinking boiled water, however, is often regarded as a local tradition and prevails only in a few regions.” Still, they hope the findings encourage a wider adoption of the habit as microplastic contamination continues to spread.