evidence: Plastic tea bags are shedding billions of shards of microplastics into their water, according to a new study. [...] They found that a single bag releases around 11.6 billion microplastic particles, and 3.1 billion even smaller nanoplastic particles, into the cup – thousands of times higher than the amount of plastic previously found in other food and drink. [...] Scientists have found microplastics in various foods, but less research has been done into whether they can be shed into water during the brewing of tea and other hot drinks.