Sugar, creamer, and microplastics? The inside story on the plastic-free coffee revolution

(Image credit: Getty Images) It’s in everything. It was in your baby bottles, the sneakers you took your first steps in, your elementary school lunchbox, the pens you chewed during high school exams. One study even reports there’s as much as 5g in our cerebral organs.The average kitchen contains a lot more than 5g of the stuff. Take a look at your kitchen appliances: which are constructed entirely from plastic, and which are metal or glass? Refrigerators, air fryers, blenders, coffee machines — they’re all plastic.Slowly but surely, though, the attitude towards plastics is changing. According to Google Trends, 2026 alone has seen a 5,000% increase in searches for “plastic-free coffee maker”. To put this into perspective, let’s compare: an increase of 5,000 is the size difference between a mouse (7cm long) and the Eiffel Tower (33,000cm tall).So what’s causing this shift, and why? I spoke to Moccamaster, a leading coffee maker brand, and Beth Gardiner, author of Plastic Inc., to find out. Beth Gardiner is an American journalist based in London. Plastic Inc., her second book, has been long-listed for the Wainwright Prize for conservation writing, named a New York Times Book Review Staff Pick/Editors’ Choice, and picked by the Financial Times as one of Summer 2026’s best books. Her first book, Choked: The Age of Air Pollution and the Fight for a Cleaner Future, was named one of 2019’s best by The Guardian. Beth’s journalism has been published in outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic and The Washington Post. What is plastic? Beth Gardiner describes plastic as an “incredibly complicated petrochemical, meaning it's a chemical that comes from petroleum products.”“The raw ingredients of plastic are basically derivatives and byproducts of oil and gas. We use the word plastic as a singular, but there are many different kinds of plastics.”Beth Gardiner“The raw ingredients of plastic are basically derivatives and byproducts of oil and gas. We use the word plastic as a singular, but there are many different kinds of plastics.”“What you end up with is a petrochemical.”Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.Essentially, plastic is fossil fuels that have been heated, pressurized, had molecules reconfigured via a series of highly complex chemical processes, and been added to.Despite this, plastic isn’t inherently evil. In some cases, it’s the only plausible material — single-use medical equipment, for example.What’s a microplastic? (Image credit: Shutterstock)Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic. Anything from 5mm to 1 nanometer counts as microplastic. Most microplastics are invisible to the naked eye — 1 nanometer is 10 million times smaller than a centimeter (25.4 million times smaller than an inch).Contrary to popular belief, microplastics can shed from any type of plastic. Even proudly BPA-free or PFAS-free plastics can degrade, eventually becoming microscopic microplastics. And when you introduce hot water or heating elements into the equation? BPA-free, virgin plastics might not leach carcinogenic compounds into the water, but they will degrade over time.While researching for this article, I discovered my trusty tea bags leach billions of nanoplastics and microplastics, according to a 2019 study at McGill University. Honestly, I’m still reeling. How many microplastics are floating around inside me thanks to my English Breakfast tea addiction?I’ll have my coffee with creamer, sugar, and… plastic? The Simply Good Coffee Plastic-Free Brewer. (Image credit: Tom's Guide)How many cups of coffee have you consumed today? Four? Five? Do you know how many microplastics were in each one? No, of course not. But that doesn't mean plastic coffee makers are inherently wrong.Take Moccamaster, for example. If Moccamaster were to make a glass brewer, I’m guessing shipping costs from production in the Netherlands would be astronomical. Plastic is light, durable, and cheap. Glass is heavy, delicate, and expensive. Would the average person be able to afford it?Even so, other brands are offering low-plastic machines. Simply Good Coffee, Aarke, and Ratio are brands already whetting the appetite of the anti-plastic brigade, and I don’t blame them. (Image credit: Google / Future)“If you go to the supermarket to buy some bananas, they're wrapped in a plastic bag, and you buy them. Economically speaking, you did not demand a plastic bag. Your economic demand was for bananas.”Beth GardinerAs evidenced, the general hunger for “plastic-free coffee maker” is experiencing the highest spike.Even though consumers seemingly want plastic-free products, the onus shouldn’t be on consumers to reduce plastic usage. We’re not asking for plastic in all our appliances — we’re served it. “Plastic is being pushed into markets,” says Beth Gardiner, author of Plastic Inc. “If you go to the supermarket to buy some bananas, they're wrapped in a plastic bag, and you buy them.Economically speaking, you did not demand a plastic bag. Your economic demand was for bananas.” The Ratio Four Series 2. (Image credit: Tom's Guide)Of course, consumers can find completely plastic-free bananas, but this produce is often double, triple, or quadruple the price and much less convenient.“The reason why plastic is in such wide use, particularly in terms of packaging and cheap products, like toys and appliances, is that it is super, super cheap.”“The current narrative can sometimes suggest that any product containing plastic is inherently harmful, unsafe, or poorly made, but that is simply not the case."Will Etherington, MoccamasterMoccamaster isn’t shying away from using plastic, though. Will Etherington, Director of Sales at Moccamaster, says that the “plastic components in the coffee and water-brew path comply with European food-contact requirements, including EU Regulation 10/2011.”This means that all the virgin plastics used in Moccamaster’s line — including my favorite drip brewer, the KBGV Select — are “evaluated for chemical and material migration under repeated boiling-water-use conditions, using standardized tests designed to represent, and, where applicable, exceed, the time and temperature encountered during daily brewing."So what are we supposed to do? (Image credit: Shutterstock)Unfortunately, as consumers, there’s very little we can do. If we want a coffee maker, we go and buy one. More often than not, we’re restricted by how much we can spend on said coffee maker.“Moccamaster does not introduce products simply to follow trends,” says Will Etherington. This comes in light of the huge uptick in plastic-free brewers released recently — the aforementioned Ratio Four (Series 2, 2025), Simply Good Coffee Plastic-Free Brewer (2026), and the low-plastic Aarke Coffee Maker (released in 2024).“The current narrative can sometimes suggest that any product containing plastic is inherently harmful, unsafe, or poorly made, but that is simply not the case," says Etherington."What matters is how the material is selected, where it is used, whether it complies with applicable food-safety standards, and how it contributes to the product’s performance, durability, and longevity.” (Image credit: Tom's Guide)Why not buy something once and use it over and over? Beth GardinerGardiner corroborates this, stating that the fundamental problem is disposability. “Disposability in the broad sense, not just throwaway cups and packages, but also the sort of approach to consumerism where goods are so short-lived and so incredibly abundant.”“If you're substituting wooden forks instead of plastic forks, pretty quickly you're chopping down forests to make more wooden forks.”“Why not use a metal fork and wash it and use it a thousand times?”Simply put, why not buy something once and use it over and over?I believe that plastic coffee machines aren’t any worse than all the plastic most of us ingest every day. Take Moccamaster, for example: The plastic carafe is replaceable. On top of that, the Moccamaster is produced in the EU, which has extremely tight health regulations.My takeaway Plastic-free AeroPress Premium, $199. (Image credit: Future)First things first, I’m going to look into my teabags. That statistic has made me feel nauseous. Am I inviting billions of microplastics into my precious body just by drinking tea?I’ve already replaced most of my food storage boxes with glass. I bought a 10-pack of glass containers in July and now shudder whenever I remember my old predilection for heating soup in plastic bowls.The bottom line is this: to be as safe as possible, you should buy plastic-free products, especially if those products involve heating. However, plastic isn’t inherently evil. It’s how it’s used and maintained.I put petrol-derived Aquaphor on my lips every single day. There’s no such thing as a plastic-free world anymore. At this point, everything we do is merely harm reduction. And investing in a well-made, durable product is the best thing you can do for yourself. Whether that’s the lifetime-repair-warranty Moccamaster or the plastic-free Ratio Four is up to you. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. More from Tom's Guide47 early October Prime Day Deals I'd shop now — save 50% or more on Asics, Blink and NinjaI tested the iPhone 18 Pro Max vs. iPhone 16 Pro Max side-by-side: Should you upgrade?9 new movies and shows to stream this weekend on Netflix, HBO Max and more (Oct. 2-4) Erin Bashford is a senior writer at Tom's Guide, focusing on reviews. She has a Masters in Broadcast and Digital Journalism from the University of East Anglia. As an ex-barista, she knows her way around a coffee machine, and as a music lover, she's constantly chipping away at her dream of having a multi-room home sound system. In her spare time you can find her reading, practising yoga, writing, or stressing over today’s NYT Games.