Plastic Microbeads: Ban The Bead!

Photo: Sash Photography

 

Plastic Microbeads 101

 

What are plastic microbeads? 
Microbeads are really tiny plastic particles usually smaller than two millimeters.  The composition of microbeads can vary and often include polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polymethlyl methacrylate (PMMA) or nylon. Bottom line, it’s all plastic!

 

What products contain plastic microbeads? 
Plastic microbeads are in face soaps, body washes, and even toothpastes. They are sometimes included in “age-defying” makeup (yes, filling in wrinkles with plastic dust!), as well as lip gloss and nail polish. Most wastewater treatment doesn’t filter out microbeads, and they get discharged into waterways.[1]  As a result, micro-plastic particles are found in bays, gulfs and seas worldwide, as well as inland waterways.[2]

 

Does microbead pollution impact us? 
Could the plastic you’re washing your face with end up in your sushi? Crazy, but yes. Fish species that humans harvest for food have been known to eat micro-plastic particles at an alarming rate and the toxins absorbed in those plastics transfer to the fish tissue.[3]

Plastic microbeads absorb persistent organic pollutants (long-lasting toxic chemicals like pesticides, flame retardants, motor oil and more) and other industrial chemicals that move up the food chain when the toxic-coated beads are consumed by fish and other marine organisms. A single microbead can be up to a million times more toxic than the water around it![4]

 

How do I know if I’m washing my face or brushing my teeth with plastic?
Most people have no idea that those little beads are actually bits of plastic! In the United States, The Food And Drug Administration (FDA) requires that if a product contains microbeads the company has to list the ingredients. Not all countries require this, but many producers list their ingredients anyway. If you see any of the following ingredients: polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate or polymethyl methacrylate you’re cleaning up with plastic and being duped into contributing to plastic pollution in the environment—yikes!

 

What’s happening to put a stop to plastic microbeads?
Right now, about 18 states in the US, Canada, Australia, and several countries in Europe are considering bans of products that contain plastic microbeads. This is great!

Unfortunately, many of these bans on microbeads don’t go far enough to protect our health and our shared waters. The industry that is pushing these plastic-filled products has written a bill that leaves loopholes for the microbeads to be replaced with other kinds of plastics and circulated it around the world.  The Story of Stuff Project is leading a coalition of over 100 groups to get these tiny plastic beads out of commerce.

 

Why can’t you just replace the microbeads with bio-degradable plastic?
Biodegradable plastics require an industrial scale composting facility to get the plastic really hot so it can degrade as intended. Since plastic microbeads are designed to wash down the drain, they simply won’t break down (not the mention the myriad other issues with bioplastics).

 

 

Why won’t the personal care products industry swap the plastic out for natural substitute?  
This question is kind of hard to answer because (surprise!) industry isn’t being real forthcoming about why they want to substitute one kind of plastic for another. What we’ve gathered here at Story of Stuff HQ from talking to these sneaks, is that companies want to keep the plastic in their products because it’s cheap and easy to source. But more importantly, plastic microbeads are smoother than natural alternatives like apricot shells, jojoba beans, and pumice. Why is smoother “better”? Smoother means these cleansers will be less effective at exfoliating, which means you can use them everyday, which means they want you to buy more of their Stuff!

 

http://storyofstuff.org/plastic-microbeads-ban-the-bead/

 

 

 

 

 

Ditch the Microbeads for Wildlife's Sake

John F. Calvelli   Executive Vice President, Public Affairs, Wildlife Conservation Society

 

Originally posted: 04/22/2015 and updated: 06/22/2015

 

After a long day at work, what better way to wash away the stress than a nice, refreshing facial scrub before going to bed? A few years ago, major cosmetics and hygiene product manufacturers devised a way to make this daily ritual even more refreshing: adding tiny plastic microbeads to facial wash that would increase abrasion and, of course, exfoliation.
These microbeads proved to be popular with the consumer public and soon found their way into hand soap and even toothpaste. Microbeads appeared to be the key to a well-exfoliated and more invigorating future.

Microbeads, the tiny plastics found in beauty products and toothpaste, harm the environment. (Photo by Chip Weiskotten, ©WCS)

Unfortunately, those tiny colorful microbeads in your hand soap, facial cleanser and toothpaste are causing major damage to our natural ecosystems and the wildlife that inhabit them.

The problem stems from their small size and the enduring nature of polyethylene or polypropylene plastics. Microbeads are designed to be rinsed down the drain along with the soap suds after use, but our municipal water treatment facilities are not equipped to filter such small pollutants out of the water. Thus, after serving their exfoliating purpose, the microbeads flow unimpeded into our streams, lakes and rivers.

This sounds like a minor issue, but because plastics biodegrade so slowly, the microbeads remain in those waters virtually forever. And the chemicals contained in the plastic are proving harmful to marine life.

Once these pollutants are out in the environment, they make their way into the food chain. To fish and other aquatic creatures, the plastic particles look alluringly like food morsels. Because the microbeads contain chemicals from manufacturing as well as "hydrophobic pollutants" from the water that collect on its surfaces, including DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), they are highly toxic to living organisms.

The chemicals in those plastics remain in the small fish and amphibians until they are eaten by a larger animal, transferring the pollutants to their new host. In the end, humans may even end up ingesting these particles and associated toxins.

Research shows that the tiny particles are creating a big problem. A study from the University of Wisconsin (Superior) found that the Great Lakes contain up to 1.7 million plastic particles per square mile. A report released by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said that microbeads were found in the outflow of 25 of 34 wastewater treatment plants studied.

Fish sometimes eat microbeads. The chemicals in those plastics could be passed on to humans, according to scientists. (Photo by Julie Larsen Maher, ©WCS)

In response to the findings in the Great Lakes, the state of Illinois was the first to ban the sale of cosmetics containing microbeads in 2014. This year, New Jersey followed suit and similar efforts are underway in New York, California and Ohio. Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) has also introduced a bill in Congress to ban the manufacture and sale of products that include microbeads nationally.

But we can move this process along by simply choosing to go without microbeads. You can do your part by trading in your microbead-filled soaps and toothpaste and making sure to buy personal care products that are healthy for both people and wildlife. It's an easy way to make a difference.

The personal care product industry has at least recognized the issue. Companies including L'Oreal and Procter & Gamble have signaled that they will move away from microbeads in their products.

In the end, the ultimate demise of microbeads should not affect the exfoliation of America too much. There are natural alternatives to plastic that use ingredients like oatmeal to increase abrasion. This is a problem that should be easy to solve. And when we are able to wash our faces before bed without endangering wildlife, it will feel all the more refreshing.

Follow John F. Calvelli on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnCalvelli

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-f-calvelli/this-earth-day-ditch-the_b_7118062.html

 

 

 

Why Canada is banning microbeads

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the beatthemicrobead.org link to work this morning but they do have a Facebook page if you want to check it out.  There also appears to be a Beat the Microbead App, at least for Apple products.  This is definitely something worth reading about and taking action!  -- Gene 
 

Science, Tech & Environment

PRI's The World

September 30, 2015

By Andrea Crossan

 

To listen to this story, click here

 

 

Microbeads are found in this foaming scrub from Neutrogena.   Credit: Steven Davy

 

 

We all want clean teeth. And hey, if we could scrub off a few of those laugh lines, who wouldn't?

But do you know what's in some of those drugstore products that say they will make your teeth whiter or your skin clearer?

Microbeads — that abrasive, gritty stuff that is supposed to exfoliate your skin or polish your teeth.

Now Canada has taken a bold step toward banning them. The microbeads, found in dozens of beauty products widely sold in the US as well, are actually tiny pieces of plastic.

Neutrogena advertises "energizing microbeads" in their foaming scrub.   Credit: Steven Davy

Toothpastes, facial scrubs, body lotions, shower gels filled with tiny pieces of polyethylene.

And the real problem created by these plastic beads is where they go after we rinse and spit. Microbeads end up in lakes, rivers and oceans — and that's got Canadian biologist Lisa Erdle worried.

Erdle works for Ontario Streams, a conservation group based in Toronto. She's spent the past few months collecting water samples from the surface of Lake Ontario.

 

Water samples from Lake Ontario, Canada.     Credit:  Andrea Crossan

 

“When we have the net in the water, we are sort of skimming the surface and then collect everything in this really fine mesh,” explains Erdle. "[We] then rinse it down and then this gunk, some are a little messier than others is what is collected in the net.”

Microbeads are small — like the size of a grain of sand, small. That's the problem. They are too small to be caught by the filters in wastewater plants.

“Most people who are using these face washes, body washes, hand soaps, cosmetics, have no idea that there is plastic in the products that they're using," says Sherri  Mason.

She studies microbeads at the State University of New York at Fredonia. The water samples that Lisa Erdle collects on Lake Ontario go to Mason.

“So [consumers] use these products, they wash their face, they go down the drain and they are not realizing that they are actually releasing plastic into the environment."

Mason analyses how much plastic is making its way into in the largest freshwater ecosystem on earth — the Great Lakes.

 

What she's found is the stuff of nightmares.

New York state alone dumps around 19 tons of microbeads down the drain every year. Once these beads enter the water, they attract toxic substances, like PCBs.

“The concern is that as [the beads] are ingested by organisms that live in the water, they desorb into that organism so you have things like PCBs or PAHs, triclosan,” says Mason. “Some of these chemicals that are known to be endocrine disrupters, they are known to be carcinogens. They are known to have very significant human health impacts and basically the plastics act as a means to move those chemicals from the water and into the food web.”

And they become part of the food chain.

 

Products that include microbeads.   Credit: Steven Davy
 

“The smaller the plastic the bigger the impact, so it's the pieces that you can't see that are of most concern to scientists because they are more easily ingested, whether intentionally, like a fish seeing this round plastic might think it's a fish egg and eat it, or unintentionally. The beginning part of the food chain are filter feeders, like mussels. And literally all they do is filter water through their bodies so they are not choosing what they eat so anything that's in the water will end up in these organisms.”

The fish eat the microbeads. We eat the fish.

And it's why the Canadian government announced in July that it intends to ban the use of microbeads in personal-care products.

The Canadian government reviewed more than 130 scientific papers and concluded that microbeads should be added to the national list of toxic substances.

“It's important to realize that water connects us all to each other,” says Mason. "If it's in the water, it affects everybody whether you live in Bangladesh, Zimbabwe or upstate New York.”

There are some states in the US that have passed bills banning microbeads. But the US bans don't go into affect until January 2018. And those bills only ban some microbeads, allowing the use of biodegradable ones.

Those are also plastic, though they can be broken down under laboratory conditions. It's not clear whether the beads would biodegrade at the bottom of a lake.

But there is some reason to be hopeful that microbeads will soon be a thing of the past. A number of large beauty product manufacturers are phasing out the use of microbeads.

Meaning that next summer, it's possible that Lisa Erdle won't be seeing as many of those tiny blue plastic balls on the surface of the water.

“I care about this because I grew up on the lake,’ says Erdle. “I swim in Lake Ontario, I sail. I fish as well. So, I want a clean lake.”

Do you want to know what products have microbeads in them? Here's a list of the products using beads. 

http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-09-30/why-canada-banning-microbeads

Here’s another site and more information. 

http://www.5gyres.org/blog/posts/2014/08/19/plastic-microbeads-campaign-update