How to filter and remove microplastics from drinking water effectively! 

Microplastics have been in the news over the last few years, and social media hysteria seems to peak every now and then with dire warnings about them specially when it comes to finding microplastics in water.

But what are microplastics?

There is a simple answer: microplastics are pieces of plastic of 5mm or smaller. Or another definition is 5 microns or smaller.

Of course, 5 microns is difficult to visualise; it’s about the size of a red blood cell. Under the right conditions a person with extremely good eyesight can discern that, but that’s about the limit of human vision. So, you and I probably can’t see micro plastics at all without the aid of a microscope.

That leads to other questions, doesn’t it?!

Are there microplastics in water? 

There are microplastics in rivers, lakes, sea, and oceans. Anywhere plastic waste goes, microplastics can be found.

This is a failure of human beings to dispose of plastic waste properly. Because microplastics come from plastic items such as discarded bottles, packaging, and other items breaking down due to the action of sun, wind, and water on the material.

That erosion of the plastic reduces the size of the constituent parts, until they are too small to see.

But they are still there! And once they are that small, they can get anywhere, including the food we eat and water we drink.

What about microplastics in tap water? 

Yes, microplastics can be found even in drinking water. Not in huge quantities, because the public water supply does filter an awful lot of stuff out – but there are microplastics in tap water.

It’s a surprising revelation, isn’t it? There are microplastics in your drinking water!

You’re cleverer than that, aren’t you? You drink bottled water. But hang on…

Are there microplastics in bottled water? 

This is going to surprise you. A study reported in 2022 by Sherri Mason, a Penn State researcher in the United States, found that an average of 325 plastic particles were found in a litre of bottled water.

This compared to 5.5 particles in tap water. Shockingly, the bottled water turned out to be worse than the public water supply.

Okay, so that’s America, what about here in the UK? Are there microplastics in bottled water sold in the UK?

A recent report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) stated that “Tap water in the UK contains between zero and 10 microplastics in every litre.” But it can be a few hundred in bottled water. Furthermore, tests showed that 93% of bottled water has some signs of microplastic contamination.
You should also note there is not much legislation controlling the quality of bottled water compared to the legal requirements placed on the public water suppliers.

How to detect microplastics in water 

Detecting microplastics in water is simple, but not necessarily easy because you’ll need some method of magnifying a sample of water. Think of it this way, if you have a microscope, you’ll be able to see down to the micro level to view and count microplastics, but the volume of water in the sample will be very small too.

If you can only check 1ml of water at a time it will take you a long time to get through 1 litre, which is 1000 times greater than that 1 ml sample. Fortunately, there are scientists and independent organisations who test for these things who you can trust – so take it as read that the microplastics are in water.

Beware of information on social media where there’s an agenda to discredit proper scientific researchers and government departments. There are some very convincing and charismatic people talking about microplastics out there – but they are not necessarily correct (even if they’ve got a white paper!).

Now that we’ve established that there are more microplastics in bottled water than in tap water you may be rethinking your daily hydration.

But there’s still that niggling issue of a small, but worrying, contamination of microplastics in drinking water from your kitchen tap.

Can microplastics be removed from water? 

Yes! Microplastics can be removed from water. That was easy, wasn’t it?!

However, there are lots of methods to remove microplastics from water discussed and advised in countless articles and posts across the media and online. However, some of these methods seem to make sense for making water safe from contaminants but may not necessarily work for microplastics.

How to filter microplastics from drinking water

There are various methods of removing microplastics from drinking water.

Treatments such as boiling water and filtration are often recommended, but can drinking water filters remove microplastics from tap water?

Some contamination in water is dissolved (such as lead), but microplastics are not soluble in water. They have a physical presence with measurable dimensions. That means that filters that remove sediment can also be used to filter out microplastics too.

Essentially, when you pass a liquid containing solids, such as sediment or in this case microplastics, suspended in it through a medium that has pores smaller than the size of the solids then those solids remain trapped while the liquid passes through. That leaves the solids in the filter and the fluid is free of solids larger than can get through the porous filter medium.

Here’s where it gets complicated.

What size are the microplastics in the drinking water?

As microplastics are (mostly) invisible to the naked eye you can’t just look at the water coming out of the tap, or into your water bottle, and decide what filter rating you need on this occasion. And who wants to have multiple filters depending on what may or may not be there.

Before we move on to the solution, we’ll cover whether boiling water will remove microplastics. Let’s be totally clear on this one, simply boiling a kettle full of water WILL NOT remove microplastics. The closest you might come is to melt the plastics – but they will still be there. Even if they melted in the boiling water, a soon as it’s cooled to be drinkable the microplastics will solidify again.

Having said that, if you boil water and the condense the vapour using a distiller, and then drink the resulting distilled water, that will have no microplastics in it.

But filtration is a much simpler method.

What is the best water filter to remove microplastics? 

Any standard water filter should help filter out microplastics from water.

There is a caveat to that, though. A 10 micron carbon block, or 20 micron metals filter containing granular activated carbon will certainly make the water taste nicer, but they won’t filter out microplastics of 5 microns or smaller.

Here at Fountain Filters our recommendation to remove microplastics from water is to install a filter that has the smallest reasonable pore sized filter system that suits your needs and your pocket. The needs might include the flow rate you want to maintain.

Every water filter has an effect on flow rate and will introduce a pressure drop. If you fit a small filter with a 0.2 micron pore size into your mains water supply you’ll be very disappointed next time you have a shower. The water will just dribble out because there’s not enough surface area in the filter cartridge to allow a high volume of water through it.

Where pressure and flow rate are concerned bigger is most definitely better.

The range of water purifiers that Fountain Filters offers has three applications, covering multiple water quality issues, including filtering microplastics. They each have two stages; the first stage filters out chlorine and other chemicals. The second stage is a 0.2 micron nanofilter that will filter out tiny particles, and even microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses, plus more.

For a simple, easy to install, drinking water filter the Oyster Water Purifier is a great, low-cost option.

This provides a purified water supply at up to 3 or 4 litres per minute.

Or how about our Moby Water Purifier? This will operate at up to 10 litres per minute so is ideal to filter the cold water supply to your kitchen tap – perfect for filling the kettle, pans or water bottles quickly.

You may want to filter your entire water supply at the mains. For this application the Doby Water Purifier is big enough for 4 or 5 bedroom houses with two bathrooms.

A really great alternative for active people is the Water-to-Go drinking water bottle. You can fill these from virtually any non salt water source, and they filter the water of contaminants including bacteria, cysts, and particles such as microplastics.

There are many other alternatives we can suggest for your specific water quality requirements, give us a call on 01352 838282. Or send us a message and we’ll be happy to listen, give you options, and help you make your choice.

FAQ

How to avoid microplastics in water?

The best way to avoid microplastics in water is to remove them. You can do this by installing an under sink water filter system to treat just your drinking water or a system that will treat the water coming out of every tap in your home. This water filter system should contain the smallest micron rated cartridge you can find that won't impact your water pressure or flow rate.

Are there microplastics in tap water?

Yes, tap water in the UK contains between zero and 10 microplastics per litre. But don't be alarmed because your water company has treated the water before it gets to you, so a lot of microplastics will have been removed along with other contaminants.

Are there microplastics in bottled water?

Yes, there are substantially more microplastics in bottled water than the water coming out of your taps. This can be a few hundred microplastics per litre of water. The advice from Fountain Filters is to stick to drinking tap water that you have filtered yourself.