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Microbeads are made from non-biodegradable plastic that can harm the environment
BEACON TRANSCRIPT – We’ve all enjoyed our share of toothpastes and facial and body scrubs but now microbeads get banned due to environmental concerns.
Products containing microbeads have become more and more popular in the past years. Some like the way they look or some use the products for what they should really do like whitening our teeth if it’s a microbead toothpaste or making our skin softer if it’s a body scrub or removing impurities if it’s a facial exfoliation mask.
However, we have been somewhat misguided. Although many people do believe the microbeads help us cleanse or skin or teeth, it turns out they are made of a common plastic called Polyethylene, from which besides cosmetic products, are also made bags, bottles or bulletproof vests.
If you still don’t see the harm of microbeads or you could care less about scrubbing with tiny plastic parts, you must know after you use them they reach the waters. Water is populated with animals that can be affected by the microbeads that pollute water and endanger aquatic plants and animals.
This is the main reason why President Obama decided to ban microbeads in the U.S. hoping marine life will be at least a bit better protected from pollution. How exactly do microbeads affect animals underwater? The animals ingest the beads mostly unknowingly and as microbeads are not nutritious, they simply remain in the gut, without being processed.
This means the animal is slowly poisoned with plastic. Since one cosmetic product could contain up to 300,000 microbeads made from non-biodegradable plastic, imagine how many animals can be affected by ingesting the beads.
Since all labels clearly specify the content is not to be ingested, the same goes for marine animals. Moreover, if it happens that some of the fish that ate microbeads ends up on our plates, we are eventually eating our body scrub.
Thankfully, all of this will now be avoided by banning such products. Nonetheless, if you really can’t cope without microbeads products, you could start looking for natural alternatives, which should give you the same feeling and the same results, but eco-friendly.
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