I don’t know about you, but when I’m washing my face I prefer to use some exfoliating scrub.
You know the kind with little beads to make your face feel squeaky clean.
But those beads go somewhere after they’re washed down the drain.
And it’s not good!!
Hey guys, Julia here for DNews
Microbeads feel great.
I mean my face just feels like a million bucks after I give it a good scrub.
Those tiny plastic beads are found in other products like soap and even toothpaste.
But those beads wind up in the environment after we’re done with them and could do
some serious damage.
And while a lot of plastic in the ocean comes from food products like plastic wrap and bottle
caps, a lot of it is from these small microbeads.
A recent study published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin found if millions of these
beads get released into the water, the researchers estimate this could result in up to 80 tonnes
of unnecessary microplastic waste.
Because they’re small and buoyant, they easily pass through sewage treatment plants.
Basically that’s eight trillion microbeads entering oceans and lakes every day.
According to a study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
And that’s just the beads that make it past the filters at the treatment plants.
Those that don’t make it through wind up packed in with sludge.
The very nasty mix of waste that’s filtered out of waste water.
It’s often used as…
I hope you aren’t eating.
But it’s often used as fertilizer.
So it’s spread across fields.
And nearly 800 trillion of those tiny beads are all trapped in it.
And from there some of the microbeads get caught up in run off and well..
And usually they wind up in someone’s stomach.
And that’s bad news.
A study published in the journal Global Change Biology found that half of the ocean’s turtles
ingest plastic.
Another study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found
that 90% of seabirds have plastic in their stomachs, up from just 10% 30 years ago.
Some researchers think that fish might mistake the beads for food, eat them, then mistakenly
think they’re full.
Not to mention that plastic can poison the animals or lead to blockages in their intestines,
both potentially deadly!
And the microbeads and other microplastics can make things even worse, despite their
size they can concentrate toxic chemicals already present in seawater.
Basically they act like little sponges that soak up toxins which can accumulate in sea
life and maybe be passed on to people.
It’s not just microbeads, they’re only a piece of a much larger problem.
Researchers say there are 360,000 pieces of plastic for every square mile in most of the
world's oceans.
Another study published in the journal Science found that as many as 12.7 million metric
tons of plastic find their way into the ocean every year.
The most striking result of all this plastic pollution are giant trash gyres circling on
the surface of oceans.
And when I say giant I mean GIANT.
The most infamous of which is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
It’s estimated to be twice the size of Texas or some estimates say it’s even the size
of the US.
Plastic doesn’t biodegrade, instead, things like microbeads or plastic bottles simply
break into smaller and smaller pieces.
Most of the Pacific Garbage Patch is made up of tiny pieces of plastic, so you could
be standing on a boat and it looks nothing like a landfill.
Instead, these tiny pieces float right below the surface, making the water muddy and unclear.
And all this microscopic plastic is doing some real damage to the inhabitants of those
waters.
So what do we do?
Well already there’s legislation proposed the “Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015”
was introduced to the house earlier this year.
The aim of the bill is to ban cosmetics that contain synthetic plastic microbeads beginning
on January 1, 2018.
And even if the legislation doesn’t go through, some companies have agreed to replace them
with more natural products.
But even if we could ban microbeads, it still leaves a lot of plastic floating around.
So researchers recommend “industrialized countries can take immediate action by reducing
waste and curbing the growth of single-use plastic."
Basically, you know the drill, reduce, reuse and recycle.
And stop using those face scrubs.
Also if you think biodegradable plastic might be the answer to our problems, think again
- here’s a video from Trace explaining more.