Microplastics and those Pesky Teabags

In the UK, over 60 billion cups of tea are made annually using teabags (around 6000 of these in the Analytix office alone!). Although teabags are typically made from paper, they often include a small amount of plastic that is used to seal them shut although some teabags use a plastic mesh for the bag itself. A recent study showed that single teabag can release more than 11 billion microplastic and 3 billion nanoplastic particles into the hot water.

An application note from Analytix used a CDS pyrolysis system to analyse tea bags from two manufacturers where a GCMS EGA method was followed by multistep pyrolysis. As expected, paper was identified in each of the two bags however one also contained a styrene-methacrylate polymer and the other polyethylene.

本应用说明是进一步量化各种材料中微塑料浓度的持续研究。在这种情况下，茶包实际上是一种一次性塑料，大多数饮茶者不仅摄入了塑料，还可能增加环境负担——这让你在下午3点喝茶时需要考虑一下。

Download the application note.