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Nano- and microplastics (NMPs) are increasingly raising concerns about their potential health effects. Traditional methods for detection and characterization of NMPs in tissue require elaborate sample preparation, such as labelling or time-consuming tissue digestion. In this contribution we report on the application of optical photothermal infrared spectroscopy (O-PTIR) for localization and identification of plastic particles smaller than 1 µm. We show that the method can be applied to routine clinical tissue samples, preserving tissue architecture while accurately locating NMPs. Since this technique is label-free, contactless and non-destructive it can be applied prior to routine histopathology. We present results on various types of clinical samples, among them 3D cell cultures, mouse kidney tissue and human colon tissue.