Soap News: Microbeads and the Environment

Heather says

We spend a lot of time on here talking about cleaning things. Today those things will include you. A few years ago I mentioned the Voluntary Ban on Phosphorous in Automatic Dishwasher Detergent. While I don’t think this particular bill that will ban the use of microbeads in personal care products by 2018 will have quite the same effect, I thought I should mention it.

Apparently the beads in cleansing products with microbeads are made of plastic -I don’t know what I thought they were, I just assumed something that would break down with a pH change. It turns out those microbeads are getting into the water supply where they end up in the belly of fish and other aquatic life.

I don’t recall the last time I purchased anything with microbeads in it, but I thought the Home-Ec 101 Community should be aware of this.

So, if you love all the little fishies -stop buying and using shower wash with microbeads and if you hate the little fishies, be aware you won’t be able to wreak that particular environmental havoc in this way after 2018. (Since when did 2018 become something even on the radar? I ask as I am writing updates on a plane somewhere over Texas. Living in “the future” is pretty awesome sometimes)

H/T to The Consumerist

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