Reference · updated 30 Aug 2026

Materials

Most microplastic exposure isn't "the environment" — it's the material your food and drink touch, especially when heat is involved. This is the reference I wished existed when I started: every material I meet in a normal day, what the research measures coming off it, and what I replaced it with. Each entry links its primary sources, and each claim carries a grade — this site doesn't do vibes.

Three rules fall out of the evidence, and they'll save you reading 28 pages: never combine plastic with heat (the kettle, the microwave, the teabag); don't drink what lived in plastic when a tap and a filter exist; and check the closures and linings — the lid, the cap and the lacquer are where "plastic-free" products keep their plastic.

The plastics

11 entries

The materials doing the shedding, in roughly resin-code order. Each page covers what the polymer is, where it touches your day, the measured particle and chemical evidence, and what I actually did about it.

The safer shelf

8 entries

What I replaced the plastic with — and the honest caveats for each, because no material gets cheerleading here. "Safer" is a comparison, not a halo.

Looks safe, isn’t

9 entries

Everyday items whose plastic is hidden — paper that’s plastic-lined, bamboo that’s melamine, metal that’s lacquered, "compostable" that’s polymer. The tells, and the fixes.

How to read the resin code

The number in the chasing-arrows triangle on the bottom of a container is not a recycling promise — it identifies the polymer. 1 is PET, 2 is HDPE, 3 is PVC, 4 is LDPE, 5 is polypropylene, 6 is polystyrene, and 7 is everything else, including polycarbonate. Flip the container over and this section becomes searchable in your own kitchen.