A gentle, fast-working face scrub that gives you just the right amount of exfoliation without irritating your skin — that’s a beautiful thing.
What’s not so beautiful? When the plastic beads from our skincare products pollute our waterways and put marine life in danger.
Microplastics — that is, any plastic particles smaller than 1 millimeter — are meant to wash down the drain when you rinse off a personal care product, like toothpaste or an exfoliating scrub.
They don’t just poof out of existence, though. Water filtration systems can’t handle plastic microbeads. And because they don’t biodegrade, they often end up in lakes or oceans where small fish and wildlife mistake them for food.
That’s the ugly truth. The good news: several states have banned products containing plastic microbeads, and in 2015 the US Congress passed the Microbead-Free Waters Act to eliminate them for good.
Now skincare formulators are looking for plastic microbead alternatives to deliver safe, effective exfoliation without the nasty environmental side-effects.
