Is Nylon plastic?
Reading this off a cosmetics label? This page is about Nylon as a material things are made from. For Nylon as an ingredient on an INCI list — what it is doing in the formula and whether it counts as a microplastic ingredient — go to the ingredient page.
The short answer
Yes. Nylon is a polyamide, and it holds an unwelcome record: nylon mesh tea bags released about 11.6 billion microplastic particles into a single cup of tea at 95°C, the largest single-item measurement in the food literature.
Also called: polyamide, nylon 6, nylon 66, nylon utensils
How it behaves
The four conditions that decide whether a material is a problem in practice rather than in principle.
- Heat
- High
Does normal domestic heat degrade it?
- Abrasion
- High
Do scratching, cutting or flexing generate particles?
- Fatty food
- Moderate
Does fat pull additives or particles out of it?
- Acidic food
- Moderate
Do acidic contents attack the surface?
What Nylon actually is
A family of polyamides used where a polymer needs to be strong and heat-tolerant in thin sections: mesh, fibres, cooking utensils, and the "silken" pyramid tea bag. Its heat tolerance is exactly why manufacturers use it in boiling water, and its very high surface-area-to-mass ratio in mesh form is why that turns out badly.
Where you find it
What Nylon releases, and when
The McGill measurement is the anchor: one nylon or PET pyramid bag at 95°C released roughly 11.6 billion micro and 3.1 billion nanoplastic particles into one cup. NIST separately measured nylon bags shedding trillions of sub-100 nm particles per litre into water. Nylon cooking utensils are the same polymer applied to a hot pan with abrasion added, and they have never been measured.
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
Rarely carries a resin code; look for "nylon" or "PA6"/"PA66" on utensils
Tea bags: if it is a see-through pyramid that holds its shape in water, it is polymer mesh, not paper
Utensils: hard, slightly slippery, usually black, softens visibly if left on a hot pan
Switch to
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.
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.
Food-grade silicone
Technically not a plastic in the usual sense — silicone is a siloxane, built on a silicon-oxygen backbone rather than a carbon chain. It is more thermally stable than any common plastic, and it is also far less studied.
Products we've scored involving Nylon
Each with its own 0–100 exposure score, evidence grade and sources.
Pyramid mesh tea bag
Nylon or PET mesh
Grade A · 90%
Slow cooker liner
Heat-resistant nylon bag
Grade C · 60%
Nylon cooking utensils
Nylon (polyamide) spatulas, spoons and turners
Grade C · 60%
Plastic colander
Polypropylene or nylon
Grade C · 56%
Packaging formats made of it
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
Hernandez 2019 (McGill) — A single nylon or PET pyramid tea bag steeped at 95°C released about 11.6 billion microplastic and 3.1 billion nanoplastic particles into one cup.
Limitation: Four commercial bags, brewed empty of tea leaves to avoid interference. The particle count is enormous but the total mass is small, and the study measured release into water, not what happens after you drink it.
Zangmeister 2022 (NIST) — Nylon bags, LDPE food-storage bags and similar single-use plastics shed trillions of sub-100 nm particles per litre in ordinary contact with water.
Limitation: Deionised water at controlled temperature. Nanoparticle counts are inherently large numbers; the study is about their existence and quantity, not their fate in the body.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Nylon a plastic?
Does Nylon release microplastics?
What should I use instead of Nylon?
How do I know if something is made of Nylon?
Related materials
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.
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.
Food-grade silicone
Technically not a plastic in the usual sense — silicone is a siloxane, built on a silicon-oxygen backbone rather than a carbon chain. It is more thermally stable than any common plastic, and it is also far less studied.
Polypropylene
#5Yes, polypropylene is a plastic — resin code 5, and one of the more thermally stable food plastics. That stability is exactly why it ends up in the containers people microwave, which is where its problems start.
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