I was wondering whether there is a safe way to remove micro- and nano-plastics in water by an end user, i.e. me, using coagulants or flocculants.

Some background: The coagulation process involves adding iron or aluminum salts, such as aluminum sulphate, ferric sulphate, ferric chloride or polymers, to the water. These chemicals are called coagulants, and have a positive charge. The positive charge of the coagulant neutralizes the negative charge of dissolved and suspended particles in the water. When this reaction occurs, the particles bind together, or coagulate (this process is sometimes also called flocculation). The larger particles, or floc, are heavy and quickly settle to the bottom of the water supply.

Most of the flocculants are organic or inorganic polymers like high molecular weight polyacrylamides, Polyaluminum Chloride (PAC) and Aluminum Chlorohydrate (ACH) – These coagulants are used in the industry for water supplies, but not easily applicable at home.

Another problem is, the microplastics may be re-introduced in water during post-processing, such as in food packaging and in plastic bottles.

Need to find a safe way to do this at home.

Recently I read that boiling water, especially hard water removes microplastics, which stick to the mineral scale that precipitates from hard water.

I wonder whether making tea using tea leaves (not the tea bags, which are actually a source of microplastics themselves) would serve the same purpose, especially if you add lemon, a natural and edible coagulant. Drink the tea, and leave the leaves (pun intended), to which the microplastics will stick.

So folks, pour yourself a green tea from tea leaves with lemon, if you are worried about microplastics. That will protect you from real or imaginary threats you are confronted with daily reading the news.