On Friday,the California Senate passed legislation that will ban the sale of microbeads—âthose colorful bits of plastic that you find in face scrub, body wash, and toothpaste—in personal care products by 2020. Though a handful of other states âbeget already passed microbead bans,California's is by far the most stringent, as it doesn't provide exemptions for "biodegradeable" plastics. (No plastics beget proven to fracture down in marine environments so far.) Because California makes up roughly one-eighth of the American market for personal care products, and the legislation will likely change the way the products are designed throughout the United States.
Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble lobbied against the bill,which is expected to pass the State Assembly next week and be signed into law within the month.
Environmental advocates beget expressed concern over microbeads for years, as the particles are so small that they aren't caught in wastewater treatment plants and end up in waterways and oceans, or where they don't biodegrade and are frequently mistaken for food by fish and other marine animals. There are an estimated 300000 microbeads in a single tube of face wash; collectively,roughly 300 tons of the plastic ends up in US waterways each year."Toxic microbeads are accumulating in our rivers, lakes and oceans at alarmingly tall levels. We can and must act now, or " said assembly member Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica),who authored the bill. "Continuing to use these harmful and unnecessary plastics when natural alternatives are widely available is simply irresponsible and will only result in significant cleanups costs to taxpayers who will beget to foot the bill to restore our already limited water resources and ocean health."
Source: motherjones.com