Urgent need to ban plastic microbeads

Environmentalists are stepping up their campaign to ban plastic
microbeads, which are polluting our seas and killing marine life. These are also entering our food chain.
What are plastic microbeads? They are tiny plastic particles which are found in cosmetics — including facial scrubs, exfoliators, shower gels and toothpastes — and household products as well as industrial processes. A single shower can
result in 100,000 such plastic particles entering the ocean. A 125ml tube of
exfoliating cream contains thousands of plastic microbeads.
The trouble is these can’t be filtered by water treatment filters. So, the tiny toxins get washed down the drain and find their way into waterways and then into the marine ecosystem. The sea creatures ingest them and it causes irreversible damage to them. An alarming study says plastic microbeads are
preventing oysters from reproducing.
“By 2025, for every three tonnes of fish, there will be one tonne of plastic in the oceans,” says John Sauven, executive director for Greenpeace, UK. A large chunk of this would be microbeads.
Following a huge cry raised against these tiny bits of plastics, many companies have decided to phase out their usage by 2020. Johnson & Johnson has committed to do away with them by 2017-end. Procter & Gamble is in the process of eliminating microbeads from toothpastes and cleansers. UK supermarket chain Tesco will remove products containing these plastic fibres by 2016. It has urged its suppliers to use natural alternatives such as ground-down coconut shells. Crushed walnut shells also make a good substitute.
Sadly, there are many companies which are using it recklessly, without even mentioning it in the list of ingredients. There has to be mass awareness campaigns that can teach the public about the harmful impact of microbeads. They have to be told about the products that do and do not have these tiny plastic materials. Interestingly, Beat the Microbead website has a free app by which you can scan the barcode of a product with your smartphone camera and find out if it contains microbeads.
It is imperative that companies and governments scale up funding for scientific research to study the eco-toxicological effects of microplastics. Ecologists, scientists and all stakeholders should invest in efforts to find out safer alternatives to these plastic fibres. People have to be sensitized that the face washes and body scrubs that they are using is making them contribute to the marine pollution. Moreover, they are doing so when harmless alternatives are available.
There is a group of greens which believes that microplastic pollution is more damaging than larger pieces of plastics. Because of its small size, microbeads are easier to be eaten up by sea creatures. Even though they make up a fraction of the 5 to 12 million tonnes of plastic that goes into our oceans every year, it has been found that 280 marine species ingest microplastics. Among these, there are many species that are served on our plates. A plate of six oysters can contain up to 50 particles of plastic, a study suggests. So, there is need to
undertake research the way these plastics are entering our food chain and posing potential health hazard to us.
Pressure is mounting on companies and governments to take action against plastic microbeads. We will soon reach a tipping point where our throwaway culture could lead us to our doom. There is still time left to retrace our steps from the toxic future that we are charting out for our children. They have the right to live in a healthy environment.