The issue of microbeads polluting water sources is a recent one. Legislative solutions to this issue, in New York and across the country, were only started five years ago.
Recently, a major campaign by the Story of Stuff Project broke out in 2015 to ban microbeads across the United States, and won! So how was this legislation passed so quickly, and why was this such a big concern in the first place?
First, let’s define what microbeads are and how they are polluting our water sources. Microbeads are small plastic particles that breakdown from other plastics in the environment. These particles act as sponges to absorb all the toxins found in water, such as oils and debris.
In some cases, microbeads are created specifically for use in care products like face washes, soap, and toothpaste. Why? For additional abrasion. Why microbeads? With the increased awareness of the harmful effects of plastics on the environment, the plastics companies are looking for new products to manufacture plastic for. These microbeads are too small to be filtered out of our water supplies when they are flushed down the drain (hence ‘micro’) and get discharged into waterways, polluting the water with whatever toxins were absorbed by the particles.
Toxins present in these waterways make it to bays, gulfs, and seas worldwide, and fish species that humans harvest are eating these toxin-carrying microplastics at an alarming rate. Essentially, some of the plastics we use to wash our faces with or brush our teeth with end up in the fish we eat.
This was the issue New York Legislation started to solve in 2013. Initially, they tried to pass a statewide bill to prohibit the flow of plastics from ill-designed beauty products in New York. However this bill could not get passed.
What legislation did next, and made a lot of progress in, was getting support from individual counties in New York to get it passed some time in the future when the bill would be readdressed. It later was readdressed in 2015 by a group in California through the Story of Stuff Project. This group saw the increased awareness of the harmful effects of microbead pollution leading to populations avoiding certain products containing them, but they wanted to take it a step further and make sure these products were taken off the shelves for good.
They led a coalition of over 100 groups to push back on industry-sponsored state legislation in California and then across the country to ban microbead production, and ultimately won.
In 2015 the United States enacted federal legislation to ban microbeads and by 2017, all personal care products containing plastic microbeads were officially illegal to sell.
This was a huge win for our waterways and public health.
This is just one step in the right direction of completely shutting down plastics production.
Plastics are extremely harmful to the environment and having them in our water supply could lead to damaging effects on our health. Toxins carried by plastics are eaten by marine life and can make their way up the food chain all the way to our dinner plates.
For beauty products where you need extra abrasion, there are natural alternatives to exfoliate skin for face wash, such as sugar or sea salt. There is no need to use toxin-carrying plastics to clean your face.
With the United States setting regulations on plastics production, we are setting an example for other countries to further reduce their impact on the environment through plastics production. Currently, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and a few others are working towards banning microbead production as well.