Many Face Scrubs Contain Tiny Water-Polluting Beads of Plastic

Just when you think you’ve heard it all in regards to dangerous, unhealthy, bad-for-the-environment ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products, here comes more bad news. If you use an exfoliating face scrub to keep your skin smooth and healthy-looking, you may want to check the ingredients. Many companies are using tiny particles of plastic to get that smooth effect, which in turn end up in our watershed and may be ingested by marine life.

From Yahoo! Green:

One Australian researcher found that plastic fragments smaller than 1 millimeter are increasingly common in our oceans. In one British estuary, 85 percent of the plastic garbage was this “microplastic” debris. Sewage treatment systems can’t filter it out, so this tiny plastic junk pollutes the watershed and can be ingested by marine life.

Those little beads may feel nice on your skin, but in the long run, they’re not doing the planet any good. Besides, you can find plenty of cleansers that use natural stuff to scrub the dirt off your face.

Some of the eco-friendly brands have been around for ages, they don’t cost any more than the plasticized versions, yet they won’t clog up poor little fishy bodies when we’re done with them.

The brands using plastic beads include Aveeno, Clean & Clear, Dove, Neutrogena, Noxzema, Olay and Phisoderm (see Yahoo! Green for the full list, and a list of safe alternatives). While you could continue purchasing pre-made scrubs that are more natural and don’t contain plastic (Christ on a bicycle, plastic? Really?), I’ve got a simple trick for you that I’ve been using for years. Keep a shaker of sugar, salt or baking soda in your bathroom. Add a little to your regular face wash when you need some exfoliating power. It seriously works better than any pre-packaged product I’ve ever tried, it’s ultra cheap, it saves packaging and you’ll know for sure exactly what’s in it.

Check out this Slate article, ‘Scrubbing Out Sea Life’, for more details on how harmful those little plastic beads can be.

Link [Yahoo! Green] + [Slate]

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The Impossible Task of Cutting Plastic Out of Your Life
Drastic Plastic: From Floating Plastic Crap to Toxic Food Chain Bomb
Garbage is the Enemy of the Earth