I believe I’ve heard that PEX actually breaks down and starts leeching chemicals into the water faster than PVC. It’s also a cheaper material. Most of the houses I’m familiar with are still installing PVC.

Do you have a source on that? I find it hard to believe we put water into unsanitized bottles.

That would seem to be the explanation on the face of it. Piping is made from heavier duty plastic. But I’ve heard that PVC can start leaking some nasty chemicals over the decades. Is that better or worse than microplastics?

The thing is that most of our piping is plastic. So how is tap water so much better?