Many of you have probably heard about the issue of plastic microbead pollution – we’ve certainly been talking about it for a long time. But you may have wondered what you can do about it. Well, there’s actually lots you can do, both at the individual and community level, to go #beadfree. First just a little background and context…
What are plastic microbeads?
They are tiny pieces of plastic that are added as abrasives to certain personal care products – toothpaste, body wash, facial scrubs – and that flush down the drain and go out into our rivers and lakes because they are too small to be caught by municipal waste treatment systems. You can tell easily if a product contains microbeads because it will say “polypropylene” or “polyethylene” in the product ingredients list.
Microbeads have become a HUGE global aquatic pollution problem and awareness of the issue is building at light speed around the world. They are a serious product design failure. Harmless natural alternatives are available as abrasives, such as sea salt, coffee grounds, coconut husks, apricot shells, crushed cocoa beans, walnut shells, and orange peels. The orange peels I just came across this week at our local health products store, La Forêt: the Nature Clean Body Scrub pictured on the left includes “Exfoliating Orange Peel” as the abrasive actor (too bad the packaging is plastic though!).
Personally, I’ve never really understood the need for a “body scrub”. Sure, I get that the abrasive helps remove dead skin. But doesn’t a textured wash cloth or a brush do the same thing, and have the added advantage of stimulating your circulatory system as you massage your skin more effectively than with a scrub? Just my two cents on scrubs.
What is being done about microbeads?
A California-based organization we have partnered with – The 5Gyres Institute – was instrumental in conducting key research on microbeads in the Great Lakes exposing the magnitude and serious nature of the problem. They then galvanized efforts across the U.S. to ban the use of microbeads. The U.S. has now passed legislation to ban microbeads in personal care products by 2018, and Canada is moving in the same direction, but that still means at least another 1.5 years of the beads being flushed down drains and out into our precious waterways.
Our local Ottawa Riverkeeper – Riverkeeper Meredith Brown is a Wakefielder! – is involved as the main Canadian contact on the issue. They have been doing testing for microplastics in nearby waterways and are finding alarming amounts of them.
This video explains the issue well, with superb visuals:
Purchase your personal care products carefully
The Dutch Plastic Soup Foundation launched its international campaign against microbeads back in 2102: Beat the Microbead. They now have an app you can use to check if a product contains microbeads by just scanning the barcode with your smartphone camera. It is constantly being updated with new products from countries around the world.
As well, they have created a “Look for the Zero – Zero Plastic Inside” logo that companies producing products with no microplastics in them can include on the packaging to declare their products plastic-free. This makes it easy for consumers to know at a glance that the product has no plastics in it. It’s quite new and so far just a handful of companies have jumped on board. One of them is our local Hawkesbury, Ontario-based Green Beaver Company. So you can be sure that Green Beaver cleaning and personal care products are microplastic-free!
Microbeads can be found where you least expect them
A friend recently showed us a homeopathic “Extreme Medicated Poison Ivy Scrub” made by Tecnu. It’s the remedy that she and her family have found to be the most effective treatment for poison ivy. 
The active ingredient is derived from the plant Grindelia robusta, a herb commonly known as gumweed, and native to North America and Mexico.But the long list of inactive ingredients, includes… polyethylene beads! Yikes!
So you never know where plastic microbeads might turn up.
What can you do about microbeads in your community? The Campaign.
5Gyres has spearheaded a Microbeads Action Campaign to enable individuals and communities to reduce microbead pollution in their own backyards. They provide lots of resources on how to take the lead to make your community #beadfree. And here’s a recipe they provide for making your own DIY Microbead-Free Scrub.
We have launched a microbead product collection campaign in our home community of Wakefield, Quebec, Canada.
We put out a call for some youths to assist with creating boxes for collecting the microbead-containing products. A huge thank you to Sari Kline, Layla Shapero and Gabe Shapero, and to Krista Cooke and her family, for creating fabulously decorated boxes.
I did one too, but it’s nowhere near as cool as the ones created by our talented and inspiring youth artists. That’s Layla above, really getting into the campaign. And that’s Krista and family’s hand-painted – literally – box to the right.
The microbead-containing products we collect will be disposed of safely or sent to 5Gyres to be used for educational art projects they are doing to raise awareness about the issue.
If you happen to live near Wakefield, you can drop off any plastic microbead-containing products in a box at one of the following Wakefield locations:
- Wakefield Community Centre (WCC) – in the rear hallway where the styrofoam recycling box is (Thanks Carson, Carly and Tasha!)
- La Forêt (Thanks Diane and Michel-André!)
- Brunet Pharmacy (Thanks Nadine and Sébastien!)
#Beadfree
We hope you will consider going microbead-free, and even better, starting up a campaign in your own community. The 5Gyres one runs officially until June 30th, and there are some neat prizes to be won for those who send in the most microbead-containing products.
We’re continuing ours through the summer to try and build as much awareness as possible, and, as Layla might say, to gather up as many of the “nasty things” as possible — and take them out of circulation so they don’t pollute our precious beloved waterways.
Thanks for going #beadfree!
