The easily understood Infographic shown below was developed by The 5 Gyres Institute to describe a sad story of incredibly bad product design leading to serious toxic plastic pollution in global waterways.
Tiny plastic microbeads found in personal care products like toothpaste and facial scrubs are washed down the drain and evade municipal sewage treatment facilities because of their microscopic size. They end up in rivers, lakes, and oceans where they absorb toxic chemicals (e.g., PCBs, DDT, PFCs) in the water and are ingested by aquatic wildlife. And they simply accumulate and accumulate as toxic plastic pollution.
One example of the scale of the problem: The Attorney-General of New York estimates 19 tons of plastic microbeads are flushed down the drain annually in New York State alone.
YOU CAN TAKE ACTION TO PREVENT MORE MICROBEADS FROM ENTERING THE AQUATIC ENVIRONMENT:
1. Learn more about the microbead issue on the 5Gyres Microbead Campaign page. Watch the video, which gives an excellent overview of the issue!
2. Download the Infographic and share it with your network.
3. Post the Infographic to your social media with a link to the 5Gyres Action Page, where folks can sign the petition to support microbead bans. Tag groups and friends to help spread the word. #5Gyres #BantheBead
4. Share the Infographic with your elected officials. In Canada, you can find your federal Member of Parliament HERE. In the US, you can find your state and federal officials’ email addresses HERE. Send them the Infographic with the subject line “Stop Plastic Microbeads from Polluting our Precious Waterways.”
Read more about the microbead issue and legislative efforts to ban microbeads in personal care products in this previous post of ours on the issue.
Photo and Infographic credits: The 5 Gyres Institute