lessplasticplease

less plastic, please.

Plastic has turned up in human blood, arteries and brains. We report what the research shows,follow the data on where the mess comes from, and vet the glass, steel, wood and clay that can replace it, against a standard we publish in full.

65 articles1,272 sourcesEach one linked to where it came from.

An empty green plastic bottle lying on wet sand at the water's edge, with strands of seaweed in the shallow water behind it.
What we throw away. A plastic bottle washed up on a beach in Pas-de-Calais, France. Photo: Falken, CC BY-SA 2.5
Glass jars of oats, granola, pasta and dried goods with screw-top lids on a wooden shelf, two with small handwritten paper labels.
What lasts. Dry goods stored in glass jars on a wooden pantry shelf. Photo: Shixart1985, CC BY 2.0

It's already inside us.

Three peer-reviewed findings from the last four years. Read the caveats too: finding plastic in a body is not the same as proving it causes harm.

  1. Plastic particles were measured in the blood of healthy volunteers, at a mean of 1.6 µg per milliliter: the first time plastic in human blood was quantified.

    Leslie et al., Environment International, 2022

  2. Among 257 patients followed for about 34 months, those with micro- and nanoplastics in their artery plaque had 4.5 times the risk of heart attack, stroke or death. The study shows an association, not proof of cause.

    Marfella et al., New England Journal of Medicine, 2024

  3. Brain samples taken at autopsy held 7 to 30 times more plastic than liver or kidney, levels were higher in 2024 than in 2016, and higher still in people who had dementia. The amounts are disputed: fat in brain tissue can read as polyethylene, a problem the authors acknowledge.

    Nihart et al., Nature Medicine, 2025

What it means for your health, and what it doesn't

If you only change three things

Ranked by how well the evidence shows each one cuts what gets into you. Small trials, honest grades.

  1. Swap canned food for fresh, frozen or dried

    Can linings were long made with BPA-based epoxy. In a randomised crossover trial, a serving of canned soup a day for five days left urinary BPA 1,221% higher than fresh soup did.

    Evidence: strong. Read more

  2. Eat more fresh food, less plastic-packaged and highly processed food

    In a 2026 randomised trial, a week of food with minimal plastic contact, plus plastic-free kitchenware, cut urinary BPA by about 60% and two phthalate markers by 38% and 54%.

    Evidence: moderate. Read more

  3. Never heat food or drink in plastic; use glass or ceramic

    Heat, fat and wear raise what moves out of plastic: chemicals in migration tests and particles in lab counts. Cover with a plate, keep cling film off fatty food, and transfer takeout before reheating.

    Evidence: moderate. Read more

The full list of 9, and what didn't make it

Start with one room

You don't have to change everything at once. Pick the room where you use the most plastic, and start there.

Room photos: Kitchen & food storage, Photo: Shixart1985, CC BY 2.0; Drinking water, Photo: Shixart1985, CC BY 2.0; Personal care & bathroom, Photo: Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, CC BY 2.0; Cleaning & laundry, Photo: Gill King, CC BY-SA 2.0; Clothing & textiles, Photo: Sadarama, CC BY-SA 4.0; Baby & kids, Photo: Lucas Pescador Barcelos, CC BY-SA 4.0; Home & bedroom, Photo: Liz Lawley, CC BY-SA 2.0; On the go, Photo: Unknown (via PxHere), CC0.

Beyond your home

Latest reporting

Clothing & textiles,

Bamboo, viscose, modal and lyocell: are "eco" fabrics plastic?

No. They're regenerated cellulose: wood or bamboo pulp, dissolved and spun back into fibre. But how they're dissolved matters, the US regulator keeps challenging "bamboo" labels, and the plastic can turn up in the blend.

  • Viscose, modal, lyocell and "bamboo" fabric are not plastic. They're regenerated cellulose: plant pulp dissolved and spun back into fibre. US textile rules file them all under rayon.
  • Viscose and modal are made with carbon disulfide. Heavily exposed workers have developed nerve damage. Heart evidence is mixed; in one Finnish plant, heart-death risk returned to normal after exposure was cut and at-risk workers moved.
  • Lyocell uses a different solvent, NMMO, with no chemical intermediate. A 2024 review, citing earlier work, says more than 99% of it is typically recovered and reused.

10-minute read, 24 sources

Clothing & textiles, 31 sources

Plastic-free underwear and socks: the stretch problem

Elastane and nylon keep most socks, and plenty of pants, up. What the label leaves out, what the plastic-free options are and how they fit, and what's known about synthetic underwear and health.

Clothing & textiles, 24 sources

Where the plastic hides in your clothes

The care label tells you about the main fabric and is allowed to skip the rest. Thread, elastic, finishes, zips, prints and packaging: where plastic hides in clothing, how much, and what you can do.

  1. Recycled polyester: is fleece made from bottles better?

    A fleece made from old bottles sounds like a win. It's still polyester: it sheds, it rarely gets recycled again, and it uses bottles that could have become bottles. What the evidence says, and where it's thin.

    Filed under Clothing & textiles, citing 21 sources

  2. Cheese in plastic: cling film, vacuum packs, cheese paper and plastic rinds

    What the deli counter wraps your cheese in, how much plasticiser ends up in it, whether the plastic is earning its keep, and how to buy and store cheese with less of it.

    Filed under Kitchen & food storage, citing 24 sources

  3. Plastic in your dishwasher: the machine, the pods and the powder

    Dishwashers are full of plastic, and in the only lab test of a home machine we found, it shed microplastics. What the studies show about pods, tablets, powder and gel, and what to do.

    Filed under Cleaning & laundry, citing 25 sources

  4. Disposable diapers: the plastic, the chemicals and the cloth question

    What a disposable diaper is made of, how many one child goes through, what the chemical tests found, and what the UK government's life cycle studies say about cloth.

    Filed under Baby & kids, citing 16 sources

  5. The global plastics treaty: what's on the table and why talks keep stalling

    UN members agreed in 2022 to write a treaty to end plastic pollution. Four years on there's still no deal. What's being negotiated, where it stands as of November 2026, and what it would change.

    Filed under The bigger picture, citing 13 sources

All 65 articles

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