March 27, 2025. With growing awareness of microplastics showing up everywhere—in our food, our drinks, even the air we breathe—you might be wondering: is there any bottled water without microplastics?
If you drink water from a plastic bottle, you are drinking plastic.
Not fear-mongering. Not hyperbole. Not facetious. Fact.
How? All plastic degrades. As it degrades, it sheds. Plastic sheds from the time your water beverage is bottled to when it shows up on the store shelf. Plastic from a standard single-use liter-sized bottle sheds. Tritan copolyester, a type of plastic used to make durable reusable bottles like Nalgene’s, sheds. (If you wash your Nalgene in the dishwasher, it sheds even more.)
Yes, even your reusable plastic bottle adds microplastics to your water.
As your reusable plastic bottle is jostled around in your backpack, heated up by the sun, and dropped onto your kitchen table, a fresh round of plastic particles are knocked loose. Even cracking the lid on a bottle of water releases more microplastics into the beverage. Seriously.
This isn’t a marginal amount of shedding. According to research released in January 2024, a single one-liter plastic bottle of water contains 240,000 plastic particles. That’s not a typo.
For context (and this part is wild), back in 2018, research conducted with still fairly state-of-the-art imaging technologies identified only 325 plastic pieces in a liter bottle. Still a lot of plastic, yes, but a staggering 739 times less than what we’re actually getting in that volume of water.
And it’s not that the bottles suddenly got worse. It’s that the tools just got better. So what we thought was the problem was just the tip—the visible part—of what now looks like a continent. And if detection’s improved this much in seven years, what do you think we’ll be seeing in another seven?
BPA-free, dye-free, recyclable, spring, distilled, alkaline, any kind: If it’s coming from a plastic bottle, the water has microplastics in it.
So what does all that mean for your body? While research is still catching up, early studies suggest that microplastics may contribute to inflammation, hormone disruption, and even immune system impacts. The long-term effects are still being studied, but one thing is clear: less plastic in your water is better for your health.
What about aluminum bottles? Do they have microplastics too?
Aluminum and glass bottles are a step in the right direction. They’re not made of plastic, so they don’t shed plastic into your drink. But they can’t completely solve the problem either. The water they’re filled with may already be contaminated.
Studies have found that tap water contains a number of microplastics, meaning that any bottled water—regardless of its container—likely starts with microplastic-laced water. Because, well, bottled water is mostly overpriced tap water. The leading bottled water brands—including Coke’s Dasani and Pepsi’s Aquafina—are nothing more than municipal tap water run through a filter.
Depending on how effective that filter is, and how polluted a specific tap water supply is with microplastics, that means you are being exposed to a certain amount of microplastics.
The bigger picture. Even if aluminum and glass cut microplastic exposure, they still carry an environmental cost. Mining. Manufacturing. Transport. And despite all the “infinitely recyclable” claims, many of these bottles end up as litter, in landfills, or washing down storm drains on a journey to the ocean. You might sooner see one tumble past you on the sidewalk than in a recycling bin.
So what’s the solution to this microplastics problem? Filter water at the source. Bottle it yourself.
Disposable water bottles may be a dead end, but the trip’s not over. There’s an on-ramp for you to take instead, opening up to freeway that’s wide open.
You stop buying the problem in a container. You filter water at the source. You pour it into your own actually-reusable stainless steel bottle. You never look back.
Find the right filter. High-quality water filtration is your first line of defense against microplastics. Most basic filters do an okay job—they take the edge off the chlorine, maybe improve the taste—but they’re not built to deal with what we’re facing now: microplastics, nanoplastics, the invisible grit that’s made its way into the most essential thing we consume.
That’s why Bevi water cooler machines were designed the way they were: with an advanced filtration system that houses a recommended commercial-grade carbon filter certified to remove 99.99% of microplastics from tap water. Every gallon of Bevi water you drink instead of bottled water saves your body from ingesting more 900,000 microplastics. Not bad, as they say.
When you don’t have access to a Bevi machine at work, the gym, the cafeteria, or the brewery, and you’re at home looking for a glass of water, you can turn to a premium pitcher with a replaceable filter. LifeStraw makes a (relatively) affordable at-home filtrating pitcher that can remove not only microplastics from your drinking water, but a range of other chemicals and heavy metals.
How to make your hydration setup truly plastic-free:
- Invest in a top-tier water filter: Not all filters remove microplastics. Bevi’s recommended carbon filter is certified to eliminate 99.99% of them.
- Source wisely: When on the go, choose hydration stations with proven filtration, like Bevi machines.
- Go stainless steel or glass for your bottle: These materials don’t leach or degrade. No plastic, no problem. Also, make sure you’re using reusable bottles most of the time.
- Clean gently: Scratches inside bottles can leach particles into your next drink. Use soft, non-abrasive tools.
- Make it last: Treat that reusable bottle like it’s an extension of yourself and treat yourself to filtered water every day.
Read the latest on Bevi’s blog. We cover water quality, sustainability, beverage trends, office culture, and more.
Ryan Daly
Back to top
