How to Reduce Microplastics at Home: Simple, Expert-Backed Tips
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How to Reduce Microplastics at Home (and What Experts Say Actually Helps)

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Published on June 10, 2026
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There’s a price to living in a highly industrialized world. Things like chicken nuggets, comfy stretch pants, and bottled beverages that glisten like thirst-quenching jewels are some of the small joys of our modern civilization — but conveniences like these often carry an invisible risk. Microplastics are everywhere, lurking in our air, our water, our food, and our household products, and research is beginning to show they may have a serious impact on human health.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about microplastics. Yet in the past few years, more and more studies have linked them to a host of health issues, including heart disease, decreased brain function, obesity, infertility, and abnormalities in fetal development. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the US, and a 2024 study found microplastics may increase your risk much more than high cholesterol.

 “The risk factor (for heart disease) associated with high cholesterol is on the order of 1.5X - now (with microplastics) we're talking 4.5X,” says Dr. Philip Ovadia, a cardiothoracic surgeon who has found microplastics present in the arteries of several patients. “They're getting into the wall of the artery, and they're setting off inflammation. And you know, maybe the same thing happens in the gut, in your intestines.”
The inflammation caused by microplastics can even affect your brain. “Microplastics act as a chronic danger signal to microglia (the brain’s immune cells), pushing them out of their protective, repair mode and into a destructive, pro-inflammatory state,” says Dr. David Perlmutter, a neurologist whose book, Brain Defenders, includes a chapter on microplastics. This causes your brain to age faster, he explains, and “over time, this inflammatory environment is strongly linked to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and ALS, as well as cognitive decline, brain fog, and increased risk of depression.” The threat doesn’t end with inflammation, either - the chemicals in microplastics may also throw off our hormones. “In other words, the danger may be the particle, the chemistry attached to the particle, or both,” says Dr. Steven Quay, a physician-scientist and Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute. While studies on microplastics are still relatively new, a recent review concluded that microplastics are suspected to harm reproductive, digestive, and respiratory health, although more research is needed to prove they cause disease.


No matter where you live, it’s pretty much impossible to avoid microplastics completely, and the above study also highlighted the need to “identify strategies to reduce exposure.” Still, there is a lot you can do to reduce the amount of microplastics entering your body. We’ve put together a list of some of the most common sources of microplastics in your home, giving you concrete ways to clean up your air, water, food, and personal and household products to help you make your home as microplastic-free as possible.

When to Consult a Doctor?

Reducing your exposure to microplastics is largely a preventative measure to safeguard against a wide range of diseases. There’s certainly no harm in reducing the risk level inside your house, but if you think you already have symptoms of illness caused by microplastics, talk to your doctor for diagnosis and treatment.

Air & Water

Air

Your indoor air may be filled with microplastics. These airborne particles can come from any plastic source — but often, synthetic carpets and rugs, as well as synthetic furniture and bedding, are the biggest culprits. Anytime you do laundry, fibers from synthetic clothing and bedding can get into your air that way as well.

 Replacing carpet with tile, or swapping synthetic area rugs with natural ones made of jute, wool, or cotton, is going to help keep these tiny fibers out of your air to begin with. If redesigning your whole home sounds like a lot, a simpler solution is to invest in a high-quality air purifier.

Water

Water is one of the most common sources of microplastics, particularly bottled water. You might think you’re safe if you get water bottled in glass, but “I've seen some data say even water that is bottled in glass has microplastics, because of the source or other secondary contamination,” says Dr. Alex LeBeau, an exposure scientist and toxicologist with advanced training in public health. One study found that water bottled in glass was actually worse, with 14 particles/l in single-use plastic water, compared to 50 particles/l in water bottled in glass. (Water bottled in returnable plastic, like those big jugs at the water cooler in your office, ranked the worst, with 118 particles/l.)


Generally speaking, your humble tap is going to give you the cleanest water available, but you do have to filter it. “Depending on where you are in the country, a lot of water mains, a lot of water pipes supplying water in houses or businesses, are made of plastic,” warns Le Beau. The best way to ensure your water is clean is by filtering it yourself, with a high-quality gravity-fed or undersink system. Even if you’re dealing with filtered tap water, say at your local coffee shop, you still need to be careful — most disposable hot-beverage cups are lined with plastic to make them waterproof, and hot liquids are going to leach that plastic right into your beverage.

Hydroflask 32oz wide cap bottle

A Practical Way to Cut Back on Plastic

Hydro Flask 32oz. Water Bottle

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One of the best ways to dodge microplastics is to stop drinking water bottled in plastic. Bring filtered tap water in a stainless steel water bottle, and ditch plastic water bottles forever — your body and our planet will thank you. Being a mom to a grade-schooler, I am constantly buying new water bottles. We’ve tried out most major brands on the market, and despite the relatively high sticker price, Hydroflask is our favorite. It keeps your water icy cold (or hot) all day, the lid is easy to screw on and off and never gets stuck, and it’s incredibly durable — we haven’t broken one yet, and we’ve broken a lot of water bottles. You can choose between a flip-top straw and a basic chug lid (I prefer the basic chug lid as it’s easier to clean), and they come in a wide variety of colors.

Hydro Flask also makes a great travel mug — they’re just as well-designed as the water bottles, and are a great way to keep disposable cups, which are usually lined with plastic just waiting to dissolve into your hot coffee, out of your life. Most coffee shops are happy to fill up your reusable mug, and some even offer a small discount for bringing your own.

Coway airmega air purifier

For Air That Feels Noticeably Cleaner

Coway Airmega AP-1512HH True HEPA Purifier

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Airborne microplastics qualify as particulate matter (PM), so any air purifier designed to remove PM from your air will also effectively remove microplastics.

 If you’re looking for a portable, single-room air purifier, Coway’s Airmega is one of the best on the market. I’ve got one in my bedroom, and I absolutely love it. It’s light and small enough to move around easily, and the sleek design blends in nicely with my bedroom decor. On its lower settings, it’s quiet enough that I barely notice it. It has four different intensity settings and a built-in air quality monitor that tells it to kick on automatically when your air needs purifying, then turns itself off once your air is clean. It even has an “odor” setting specifically designed to help neutralize bad smells. Setup is as easy as plugging it in, and replacing the filter is simple and intuitive. It has a HEPA filter, of course, as well as a 3-stage filtration system and an indicator light that tells you when it’s time to change the filter. I can notice the difference in the air when I’ve had it running for a while, and wake up less congested since I’ve installed it.
Filter King merv 11 air filter

One of the Most Impactful Changes You Can Make at Home

Merv 8-13 Air Filtration System

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If you’re looking to purify the air in your entire home, filtration in your HVAC system i will have a much bigger impact than any stand-alone single-room filter. Most HVAC systems have built-in air filters, which are rated by MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value) on how well they filter air. Make sure your filters are being replaced regularly; they should be swapped out every 60-90 days, or more if you have pets or smoke inside. It’s simple enough to do yourself — you don’t need to call an HVAC professional every time you want to change your filters.

“I use a MERV-8 filter in my house, which is the best filter that my system can handle. Some systems may not be able to handle additional filtration to remove these finer particulates from the air. When you get higher numbers, the filters get thicker, and that means that it puts more resistance and strain on the system,” explains LeBeau. If you own your home, make sure you replace your filters regularly with the highest-value filter your system can handle. If you rent, talk to your landlord to make sure your system is being properly maintained and your filters are being replaced regularly.

Big Berkey Gravity fed water filter

For Cleaner Drinking Water at Home

Big Berkey Gravity-Fed Water Filter System

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When it comes to at-home water filtration, the Big Berkey is a game-changer. It’s a gravity-fed filter, which removes more contaminants than in-fridge door dispensed water filters, as the slow pace of gravity-fed filters allows the water to be in contact with the filtration medium for longer.


The best thing about the Big Berkey’s design is its size. You can leave it in the sink to fill up, and have water for the next few days, rather than constantly refilling a smaller pitcher-style system. You can also pour yourself a glass of water from a Berkey much more quickly than with an under-sink system, which filters the water as it is dispensed and can be painfully slow. With metal storage drums, your water won’t be sitting in contact with plastic, as is the case with most other gravity-fed water filters.

Food & Kitchen

It’s basically impossible to avoid microplastics in food, and the worst offenders are often not what you may think: one study found nori (seaweed sheets) and cow milk to contain the most microplastics across a wide sample of processed foods. Bottled water, table salt, and sugar ranked as the next most contaminated among processed foods.

Unprocessed food can contain microplastics too — our oceans are filled with plastic, and a recent study done in Oregon found microplastics in 99% of seafood, with shrimp containing the most.

 Even fresh fruits, vegetables and grains can absorb microplastics from the soil they are grown in.

Rather than drive yourself crazy examining your food, a good rule is to keep it away from plastic when it’s hot, since microplastics leach out much more quickly at higher temperatures. Avoid foods meant to be heated in plastic, such as many microwavable frozen foods. Some packaging is less obviously plastic — single-use teabags, for example, usually contain plastic. As for those pre-washed veggies that invite you to microwave them in the bag? Don’t do it. If you’re ordering take-out, opt for restaurants that use aluminum containers or cardboard that isn’t lined with plastic. (Hopefully, you like pizza and Indian food as much as I do.) In your kitchen, swap out plastic cutting boards, spatulas, food storage containers, plates and cups for wood, glass, ceramic, or enamel equivalents. Traditional nonstick pans are coated in plastic, and of course, are almost always used at high heat, making them a prime offender — swap them out for ceramic, cast iron, or stainless steel cookware.

Caraway nonstick ceramic cookware set

A Nonstick Alternative Without Traditional Coatings

Caraway Cookware Set

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If you cook a lot, splurging on cookware is a worthy investment. Standard nonstick pans are typically coated in PTFE, aka Teflon, which is considered non-toxic up to 500 degrees F, but recent studies show they release “thousands to millions of microplastic and nanoplastic particles per use.” PTFE is a major source of microplastic pollution, “accounting for up to 44% of microplastics in sediments, 74% in benthic fish, and 60% in human organs.”

While they’re less likely to trigger the hormonal changes some microplastic chemicals are known for, they’re still going to contribute to the “physical damage” both Dr. Ovadia and Dr. Perlmutter discuss as being the main risk factor for heart and brain diseases.

A cast-iron skillet is a great choice for your stovetop, but they can be heavy and hard to clean. A high-quality set of ceramic-coated pans is another great option, and is going to help keep your meals from sticking to the pan while still keeping microplastics out of your food. Caraway gets rave reviews and has a loyal fan base of cooks who say these pans maintain their non-stick finish well and dispense heat evenly. They’re compatible with any stovetop, including induction, and are oven-safe to 550 degrees F. They also look great — they come in 8 different colors to match just about any kitchen décor.

Keechee bamboo cutting board set

Small Swap That Reduces Daily Exposure

KeeChee Bamboo Cutting Board Set

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A non-plastic cutting board is a must-have for any kitchen. Made from sustainably-harvested bamboo, these durable cutting boards have been carbonized at 500 degrees F, making them stronger and less absorbent than typical bamboo cutting boards. They’re also thicker than other bamboo cutting boards I’ve owned; my current set shows no sign of warping, and neither strawberries nor beets have managed to stain them. My favorite thing about them is the deep juice grooves, which keep whatever I’m cutting from leaking onto the counter. One side of each board also has a shallow reservoir pocket, which works well for keeping liquid on the board, as well as creating a separate compartment for charcuterie and other snacks.

Pyrex glass food storage set

A Safer Way to Store and Reheat Leftovers

Pyrex Simply Store 18-Piece Glass Food Storage Set

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A good set of glass food storage containers is a must. You want your leftovers, from when you put them away still hot, to when you reheat them in the microwave, safely nestled in glass. The color coding in this set helps keep the lids organized, and there’s a perfect size for any quantity of leftovers. Pyrex glass is made from tempered soda-lime glass, which is designed to be shatter-resistant; you should have no issues sticking your hot leftovers right into the fridge.
Falcon enamelware dinner plate set

A Practical Alternative to Plastic Dishware

Falcon Enamelware Dinner Plate Set

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If you want to avoid eating off plastic, Falcon’s set of Enamelware Dinner Plates is a great alternative. They stack easily and are light enough to make washing up a breeze, and are just as non-breakable as plastic, making them fantastic for households with small safety inspectors performing regular shatterability tests on all dishware. This set is available in four different colors, and the matching tumbler cups are as practical as they are attractive. “I’ve been trying to cut down on my plastics and disposables use, and I love these for entertaining,” says editor Katie Tuttle. “They have this great summer-camp vibe, are lightweight, and virtually indestructible. Plus, no more disposable cups or plates!”

Clothing & Textiles

There’s a lot to be said for synthetic fibers; they’re cheap, stretchy, durable, wicking, and dry quickly. Trying to purge your closet of all your synthetic fiber clothes is likely a tall order, particularly if you’re into athletic wear. I am definitely not trying to replace my sports bras or swimwear with cotton alternatives, and I don’t suggest you do so either, particularly since, according to LeBeau, microplastics are not small enough to be absorbed through the skin. That said, for some items, like basic tees and flowy pants, cotton is king. Shopping for natural materials like cotton, silk, wool, hemp, bamboo, and leather is often the best choice, with no sacrifice involved.

It’s worth paying more attention to larger items, such as rugs or carpets, couches and armchairs, and sheet sets. These are going to get into your air, and from there your body, more easily than anything in your closet.

Brooklinen classic hardcore cotton percale sheet set

A Breathable, Natural-Fiber Sheet Set

Brooklinen Classic Percale Sheet Bundle

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Microfiber sheets are tempting, as they’re very cheap and very soft, but they also encase you in plastic for the many hours you are asleep, leaving you at risk of inhaling microfibers all night long. A nice set of cotton sheets is a must for plastic-proofing your house, and Brooklinen’s percale sheets have become an instant classic. These 270 thread-count sheets are made from long-stable cotton, making them soft yet durable. They’re cleverly stamped with “long” and “short” along the sides of the fitted sheets to take the hassle out of making the bed, and come in a wide variety of solid colors and appealing prints. They offer a lot of different combinations — you can ditch the top sheet, for example, or buy an extra fitted sheet or pillowcases on their own.
Rowe unisex organic cotton short sleeve t-shirt

A Back-to-Basics Cotton Essential

Rowe Unisex Organic Cotton Tee

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When it comes to plastic-free living, Rowe is the real deal. They’ve got plastic-free items I didn’t even know existed, like bamboo and boar-bristle toothbrushes and silk dental floss. I love their organic cotton t-shirts - because they’re undyed and made with completely US-grown cotton. If you’re into natural products, as well as earth tones, there’s nothing better than the natural parchment shade of undyed cotton, like these tees.

Pottery Barn capitola hand-tufted-wool rug

A Natural Fiber Option for High-Traffic Spaces

Pottery Barn Capitola Hand-Tufted Wool Rug

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Pottery Barn’s Capitola Hand-Tufted Wool Rug can add a luxurious feel to your home; with six colors and 10 different sizes, there’s a rug for almost any space you may want to cover. The synthetic latex cotton backing is not completely free of microfibers, but unless you’re willing to get a rug with no backing, like a woven jute rug, for example, this is pretty hard to avoid. Opting for all-natural fibers like these in the actual shag of the rug, which has much more direct contact with your environment, is still a win.

Cleaning & Laundry

Conventional household laundry and cleaning products are another place where microplastics can unexpectedly lurk. Not only may this have implications for your health, it’s also terrible for the environment — the microplastics in the wastewater from your laundry cycles eventually end up in our water, including oceans, rivers, lakes, and even glaciers.


From there, it’s not only killing marine life, but it's also going to work its way back into our food and drinking water.

Those convenient laundry and dishwasher pods that dissolve in water are made of PVA, which is a type of plastic. Most wastewater facilities aren’t capable of degrading it completely, and about 75% of that undegraded plastic ends up in our waterways as microplastic.

With any luck, new regulations will force wastewater treatment facilities to actually clean microplastics from our wastewater (the EPA has already placed them on the Contaminant Candidate List), but until that happens, reducing your own household emissions is an important part of reducing microplastics on our planet.

Knock those handy Magic Eraser scrubbers off your shopping list too: also called melamine sponges, they release a whopping 6.5 million microplastic fibers per gram of wear. That’s way too high a price to pay for a stain-free counter.

Thankfully, there are more and more eco-friendly cleaning products hitting the market these days, and non-toxic cleaning supplies have come a long way from that one giant bottle of Dr. Bronner’s soap we were expected to clean everything with.

Blueland essentials laundry kit

A Lower-Waste Way to Stock Your Cleaning Supplies

Blueland Clean Suite Starter Kit

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If you’re looking for a simple, one-click solution to plastic-free cleaning products for your entire house, Blueland has got it. Its Clean Suite Starter Kit comes with bathroom and toilet cleaners, laundry, dish, and dishwasher detergent, glass and surface cleaners, and hand soap. All of Blueland’s dispensers are refillable, making them a great way to reduce your solid plastic waste while keeping microplastics out of your house. 
Meliora laundry powder refill

A Simpler Way to Do Laundry

Meliora Laundry Powder

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Meliora is a popular plastic-free brand, with a full line of household cleaning products. Its laundry detergent is one of its most popular items, and comes in a refillable tin. You can save about $5 per package once you start buying the refills. It’s ultra-concentrated and comes in four scents, as well as an unscented option.
Planetcare Microfiber filter starter kit

To Capture Microfibers Before They Leave Your Home

PlanetCare 2.0 Microfiber Filter

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PlanetCare’s filter attaches to your washing machine and captures 98% of microfibers from your wastewater before they ever leave your house. It’s a great way to do your part to keep microplastics from your clothes and detergents from reaching open water. The system comes with replaceable filters and a bypass valve for when you’re washing natural fibers. By PlanetCare’s estimates, one filter keeps the equivalent of 52 plastic bags out of our water a year.

Personal Care

The presence of microplastics in our personal care and cosmetic items is a hidden cost we don’t often think about. Face washes with exfoliating scrubby plastic microbeads are an obvious culprit, but the plastic parade doesn’t end there. Microplastics are added to many care and cosmetic products to improve their texture and spreadability, and most mainstream “toothpaste, soaps, shampoos and conditioners, deodorants, sunscreens, lipsticks, eyeliners, nail polishes, and facial creams” contain microplastics.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, “In some cases, these products are made of more than 90 per cent plastic.”

An easy way to check what’s in your bathroom is with the free Beat the Microbead app, which tells you whether your personal care products contain microplastics by scanning the ingredient list. It’s created a color-coded ranking system that rates a product from green to red, and the website is a great place to do a deep dive on different types of microplastics used in our household and personal care products. When you’re ready to replace the prime offenders in your daily care routine, check out some of our top picks for plastic-free care products below.

Attitude Super leaves shampoo bar

A Simple Way to Reduce Plastic in the Shower

Attitude Hydrating Shampoo Bar

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After scanning five different brands of shampoo in my house with the Beat The Microbead app, I found that all of them had at least “skeptical microplastics,” which are synthetic polymers for which we haven’t researched enough to know whether they break down completely or act as microplastics. Play it safe by switching to Attitude’s shampoo and conditioner bars, which scan green — they contain zero microplastics, and they smell amazing. Solid shampoo and conditioner may sound strange, but they work wonderfully and are more than just microplastic-free; they're also a great way to reduce plastic waste and your carbon footprint by creating a smaller, lighter product for transport.

Native charcoal deodorant

A Widely Available Plastic-Free Option

Native 100% Plastic Free Deodorant

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Most typical deodorants contain microplastics. I found polyethylene in a stick of men’s Degree, while a stick of women’s Degree had polyethylene and 3 more. Natural brands, like Humble, Schmidt’s, and Native, have completely microplastic-free formulas and are widely available in most drugstores. They’re not going to have the same antiperspirant quality as deodorants that contain aluminum, but they’re good enough to keep you from offending anyone on the train. Native has gone one step further by packaging its deodorant in paper, keeping microplastics out of the environment as well as our bodies. 
Weleda Skin Food lotion

A Simple, Plant-Based Formula

Weleda Skin Food Body Lotion

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Lotions are another product that can contain microplastics, often added as texture enhancers to create that smooth, velvety feel on your skin. On ingredient labels, these may show up as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), or other plastic-based compounds. Weleda’s Skin Food Body Lotion gives you that silky feel without any plastic, locking in moisture with plant-based botanicals and squalane. Their popular Skin Food line has a wide range of products, including face creams, lip balms and body butters. 

What Are Microplastics?

Microplastics are pieces of plastic smaller than 5mm (.2inches). Once they break down smaller than a micron (one thousandth of a millimeter), they become nanoplastics, which Dr. LeBeau points out can be absorbed through the skin and can penetrate cells to cause internal damage on a subcellular level.

 Microplastics are divided into two groups:

Primary microplastics are added to personal care and household products intentionally, for their textural properties.

Secondary microplastics are byproducts of larger plastic products breaking down, like tires wearing down on a road, or a plastic bag breaking down in the ocean.

How Do Microplastics Make Us Sick?

Microplastics may impact human health primarily through two mechanisms:

Physical: The buildup of plastic in our bodies can cause inflammation in many organs, which can lead to brain, gut, and heart diseases.

Chemical: The chemicals found in some microplastics may alter our hormones, potentially leading to reproductive health and fertility issues, and metabolic disorders.

“Today, the most credible human concerns are cardiovascular disease, reproductive and developmental effects, digestive injury, and respiratory effects,” says Quay. But, he adds, "The important scientific discipline here is not to overclaim: for many endpoints, we have association and plausibility, but not yet courtroom-grade causation.”

What Is Being Done To Regulate Microplastics?

Water

The EPA is on track to classify microplastics as contaminants, which would require wastewater treatment plants across the country to remove them during processing. This would be a huge step in reducing microplastic pollution.

Secondary Microplastics

Some states have started banning single-use plastics, like bags and styrofoam containers. California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington have all banned single-use plastic shopping bags that break down into microplastics.

Personal Care Products

Currently, the only regulation in the US prohibits microbeads in rinse-off products, but other microplastics, such as polyethylene and polypropylene, remain unregulated. There are no microplastic regulations whatsoever for leave-on products like lotions and cosmetics. The EU, on the other hand, has passed strict regulations to phase out primary microplastics completely by 2035. They even banned glitter.

What Are Microplastics Doing to Our Environment?

Microplastics are contaminating all our natural systems as they build up in our water, soil, and air. In marine life, they can cause starvation and internal injuries. In soil, they can be absorbed by anything grown there, polluting crops and interfering with plant growth. In the air, they can easily be inhaled by living things; some estimates suggest humans inhale about 68,000 microplastic particles per day. They’re even causing climate change — microplastics found in snow and ice at the poles reduce the albedo effect (the reflection of sunlight), causing melting to happen faster and thus increasing global warming. 

FAQ

1How many different microplastics are there?

There are hundreds of different chemical compositions of microplastics. Beat the Microbead has created a list of over 500 of them, with a summary list of about 20 of the most common.

Microplastics persist in the environment for hundreds of years.

According to Dr. Quay, “The body may clear at least part of the burden over time, but there is no strong human evidence that 'detox' lifestyle changes reverse plaque deposition, organ deposition, or downstream disease. At this stage, the practical approach is mainly prevention and exposure reduction, not confident reversal therapy.”

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Resources
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