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There’s a lot of plastic in coffee. Well, not in the beans or the beverage specifically, but in the bags and takeaway cups. We’ve reported before on microplastics leaching from disposable cups—hot water can break down the cups’ thin plastic lining, which means you could be consuming thousands of microscopic pieces of plastic while enjoying your morning coffee.
According to new research, the same thing could be happening with plastic coffee pods.
The study, published in Science of the Total Environment, examined how microplastics leach from different coffee preparation methods, including pod machines. Mohamed Abdallah, one of the study’s authors and a professor of environmental chemistry at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, told Matt Fuchs in Time that they found “significant levels of microplastics” in the pod-made coffee.
Abdallah “confirmed the source of these microplastics by tracing them back to the same kind of plastic used to make each pod,” Fuchs writes.
Coffee pod machines are extremely prevalent: Keurig says 38 million households in the United States used one of its brewers in 2022. Because pod machines are so popular, their safety has been a topic of research for scientists before. Previous research found that pod machines can leach low levels of estrogenic chemicals (chemicals that can mimic or interfere with the body’s hormones) into coffee, although this is true for most plastic products.
Whether or not microplastics have a direct impact on human health remains a subject of debate, Abdallah notes. “Our understanding of the toxicity of microplastics remains in its infancy,” he told Fuchs.
Alternatives to plastic, such as stainless steel or bioplastic pods, are available. However, Fuchs points out that some research has found that bioplastics “are just as toxic as other plastics.”
And of course, even if you avoid pods completely, your drip brewer is probably made from plastic as well. Heck, upwards of 83% of tap water worldwide contains microplastics. They may just be impossible to avoid at this point.
Read more on how we’re all consuming microplastics with our coffee via Time here.
Photo by Zack Xavier on Unsplash
