Microplastics in tap water: what we actually know

What microplastics actually are

Microplastics are exactly what the name suggests: very small pieces of plastic. Scientists use the term for any fragment smaller than about five millimetres — roughly the size of a sesame seed — but most of the pieces found in water are far, far smaller than that, well beyond what your eye can see.

They come from ordinary life. Packaging and bottles slowly break apart in sunlight and water. Synthetic clothing sheds tiny fibres in the wash. Car tyres wear down on the road. Plastic doesn't rot the way an apple core does — it just keeps breaking into smaller and smaller pieces, and those pieces end up in soil, rivers and the sea.

How they end up in your glass

Because microplastics are everywhere in the environment, they turn up in the rivers and dams that supply our drinking water. Municipal treatment plants do a genuinely good job of removing particles, and they catch a great deal — but the very smallest fragments are difficult for any large-scale process to trap completely, so some can pass through to the tap.

It's worth knowing that bottled water is not an escape route. Researchers have found microplastics in bottled water too, which makes sense when you think about it: the water spends its life inside a plastic container. So switching to bottles doesn't solve the problem — it mostly just adds cost, and more plastic.

What the health science says — honestly

This is where we owe you a straight answer: the science is still young. Researchers around the world are actively studying what microplastics do inside the human body, but there is not yet an established 'safe' or 'unsafe' level, and health bodies such as the World Health Organization have essentially said the same thing — we need more and better research before firm conclusions can be drawn.

That means two things are true at once. There is no proven reason to panic, and your municipal tap water still meets the standards it is tested against. And at the same time, preferring not to drink tiny pieces of plastic while the science catches up is a completely reasonable position. You don't need a scary headline to justify it — it's simply a sensible preference, like choosing fresh food over processed when you can.

How a filter removes them: it's a size game

Removing microplastics is mostly about physics, not chemistry. A particle either fits through the holes in a filter or it doesn't. Filter openings are measured in microns — a micron is one millionth of a metre, and for scale, a single human hair is roughly 70 microns across.

A carbon block filter is a good example of fine filtration. Instead of loose carbon granules, the carbon is compressed into a dense, solid block, so water has to squeeze through a maze of tiny pores. Along the way the block traps fine particles while the carbon itself deals with chlorine, odours and other taste-spoiling compounds — which is why carbon block features in most of our under-counter systems.

An ultrafiltration membrane goes finer still. The membrane in our 5-Stage Ultra-Filter System has openings of 0.2 microns — hundreds of times narrower than a hair — and works as a simple physical barrier: anything bigger than the opening cannot get through. That is fine enough to remove microplastics, and bacteria and parasites too, while letting water and its natural minerals pass. Unlike reverse osmosis, it does this with zero water sent to drain.

A sensible way forward

If microplastics are on your mind, you don't need an extreme solution. A well-made filter at the kitchen tap — where your drinking and cooking water comes from — addresses the water you actually consume, at a running cost far below bottled water.

For most homes on municipal water, our 5-Stage Ultra-Filter System is the natural fit: its 0.2 micron membrane physically removes microplastics along with bacteria and parasites, and it uses standard 10-inch cartridges so replacements stay simple and affordable. If you'd rather have nothing plumbed in at all, our countertop mineral-pot dispensers filter microplastics too — you just fill the top tank and pour.

Either way, the goal is the same: calm, practical protection while the science does its work. No fear required.