Plastic Free Living

A three-panel collage showing a glass of water on a kitchen counter, a person slicing cucumber on a cutting board, and a plastic water bottle on a rocky riverbank with mountains in the background.

Reduce plastic exposure and impact. Keep your life practical.

Guidance and Research

Can RO Membranes Shed Nanoplastic In Drinking Water?

September 1, 2026|Ryan Stanley

I have been asking the same question since I first became interested in testing drinking water for nanoplastics: Could a reverse osmosis membrane shed plastic particles into the water it...

Our Water Testing Journey at UCSD

August 8, 2026|Ryan Stanley

What We Have Learned So Far For the past several months, I have been trying to answer a difficult question: How can we test water for extremely small plastic particles...

Lab Testing for Nanoplastics: Why no single test tells the whole story

January 31, 2026|Ryan Stanley

Methods, Limitations, and What to Expect We wanted to start testing products for nanoplastics. What we found was a field still figuring itself out. Nanoplastics are plastic particles smaller than...

What Research Tells Us About Potential Health Risks: Microplastics in the Human Body

January 11, 2026|Ryan Stanley

Microscopic plastic particles have become impossible to avoid in modern life. These tiny fragments, found in our food, water, and air, are accumulating in human bodies worldwide. Scientists are...

How How Microplastics and Nanoplastics Enter Your Body: Daily Exposure

January 11, 2026|Ryan Stanley

Plastic particles are entering our bodies through everyday activities. Researchers have detected these particles in human blood, placentas, and lung tissue, demonstrating that environmental exposure leads to internal presence. The...

Product Testing

Plastic-Free and PFAS-Free Dental Floss: Only Silk Passed

February 9, 2026|Ryan Stanley

Why I Am Changing My Floss UPDATED: 8/8/2026 I started looking into plastic-free dental floss because I wanted to stop putting plastic in my mouth twice a day. The first...

Metal and Ceramic Only: My Pick for the Best Plastic-Free Salt and Pepper Grinders

February 7, 2026|Ryan Stanley

How the HexClad HexMill set stacks up against Männkitchen, Luvan, and the old guard I want to get plastic out of my kitchen. Not in a dramatic, throw-everything-away-overnight kind of...

I’m Done with Plastic Cutting Boards

January 11, 2026|Ryan Stanley

Why I'm Going Solid Wood (and Stress-Testing Five Etsy Boards) Updated 8/8/2026 For years, plastic cutting boards were my default. They're cheap, common, and "easy" (toss them in the dishwasher...

We're Building a Hub for Plastic Free Decisions

One Month In: What We Have Learned about Plastics and What We Are Still Trying to Figure Out

February 2, 2026|Ryan Stanley

Our research journey is shifting how we think about plastic exposure and raising questions we didn't expect. It's been one month since we launched Plastic Free Living, and most of...

Why I’m Launching This Site (and Where It’s Headed)

January 9, 2026|Ryan Stanley

The inspiration for Plastic Free Living - Research, product guidance, and testing.