Is Paper and paperboard plastic?
The short answer
Uncoated paper sheds no polymer. The problem is that most paper that touches food is not uncoated — cups, cartons and many takeaway boxes carry a polyethylene or PLA lining you cannot see.
Also called: paper packaging, uncoated paper, is paper packaging plastic free, greaseproof paper
How it behaves
The four conditions that decide whether a material is a problem in practice rather than in principle.
- Heat
- Low
Does normal domestic heat degrade it?
- Abrasion
- Low
Do scratching, cutting or flexing generate particles?
- Fatty food
- Low
Does fat pull additives or particles out of it?
- Acidic food
- Low
Do acidic contents attack the surface?
What Paper and paperboard actually is
Cellulose fibre, with or without a barrier layer. Bare paper — butcher paper, paper bags, unbleached parchment — is genuinely plastic-free. Anything that has to hold liquid or resist grease almost always has a lining, and the lining is the food-contact surface, whatever the outside looks and feels like.
Where you find it
Why Paper and paperboard is not a microplastic source
Nothing, from the paper. Everything, from the lining: a lined disposable cup released around 25,000 particles into 100 mL of hot water within fifteen minutes. That measurement is the single best argument for reading "paper" packaging as a question rather than an answer. Separately, greaseproof coatings have historically used PFAS, which is a different contaminant family with its own regulatory movement.
Graded A. This exact product, or an item identical to it, has been measured for particle release in a peer-reviewed study. The number is anchored to a laboratory result rather than to a material. How evidence grades work →
How to tell you're holding it
Rub the inside — a faint sheen or squeak means a lining
Tear it: lined board leaves a thin plastic film bridging the tear
Anything holding hot liquid is lined; anything wrapping a dry sandwich usually is not
Switch to
Glass
No polymer touches the contents, which makes glass the cleanest widely available food material. Worth knowing: glass bottles measured around 50 particles per litre in the one study that compared formats — from the cap and the filling line, not the glass.
Stainless steel
No microplastics at all — steel is a metal and cannot shed a polymer. The catch is the parts around it: a steel bottle is only as clean as its lid, and the lid is almost always plastic.
Ceramic and stoneware
Fired, glazed ceramic sheds no polymer. "Ceramic non-stick" cookware is a different thing — a sol-gel silica coating on metal, which is not PTFE and is also not the same as a stoneware dish.
Products we've scored involving Paper and paperboard
Each with its own 0–100 exposure score, evidence grade and sources.
Starbucks hot paper cup
Paperboard with a polyethylene inner lining and a polypropylene lid
Grade B · 76%
Paper tea bag
Cellulose paper, usually with polypropylene heat-seal fibres
Grade C · 60%
Boxed Water
Paperboard carton with a polyethylene inner lining and a plastic cap
Grade B · 72%
Pour-over coffee with a paper filter
Paper filter, glass or ceramic dripper and carafe
Grade C · 60%
Packaging formats made of it
Coated paper cup
A paper cup is a plastic cup with a paper exterior. Research measured particle release from the polymer lining into hot liquid within about fifteen minutes, which is roughly how long a takeaway coffee lasts.
Tetra-style carton
A genuine middle ground. Mostly paperboard by weight with a thin inner polyethylene layer that does contact the food, but no bottle wall to shed and full light protection.
Not sure what yours is made of?
Most products never state the polymer, and a resin code on the base only tells you about the body — not the lid, the liner or the seal. Scan the item and the app identifies the materials in it, then scores them together.
Identify what mine is made ofSources
Ranjan 2021 — A disposable paper cup released roughly 25,000 micron-sized particles into 100 mL of hot water within 15 minutes — about the life of a takeaway coffee.
Limitation: Hot deionised water rather than coffee or tea, and a single cup type. It shows the polyethylene lining degrades at drinking temperature; it does not quantify a dose from a real latte.
Schymanski 2018 — Compared formats head to head: single-use PET averaged 14 particles/L, returnable PET 118/L, glass bottles 50/L and beverage cartons 11/L.
Limitation: The glass result is the one people skip. Glass was not zero — particles came from the cap and the filling line, not the bottle wall. Small sample per format.
Earth Action 2026 — Estimated roughly 1,000 tonnes of microplastics migrate from packaging into food and drink annually — about 130 mg per person per year — with PET bottles responsible for around a third, and found UV exposure can raise release up to 100×.
Limitation: An industry-funded modelling exercise, not a laboratory study, and not peer-reviewed. We use it for the relative ranking of formats rather than for any absolute number.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Paper and paperboard a plastic?
Is Paper and paperboard free of microplastics?
What should I use instead of Paper and paperboard?
How do I know if something is made of Paper and paperboard?
Related materials
Glass
No polymer touches the contents, which makes glass the cleanest widely available food material. Worth knowing: glass bottles measured around 50 particles per litre in the one study that compared formats — from the cap and the filling line, not the glass.
Stainless steel
No microplastics at all — steel is a metal and cannot shed a polymer. The catch is the parts around it: a steel bottle is only as clean as its lid, and the lid is almost always plastic.
Ceramic and stoneware
Fired, glazed ceramic sheds no polymer. "Ceramic non-stick" cookware is a different thing — a sol-gel silica coating on metal, which is not PTFE and is also not the same as a stoneware dish.
Hardwood
No plastic to shed. Wood was the comparison arm in the study that measured plastic cutting boards, and it is the reason that study reads the way it does — a wooden board generates wood particles.
← All materials · Product database · Packaging formats · Methodology