Greenpeace want to ban microbeads in beauty products
<p>If you washed your face this morning with an exfoliating scrub, you might have been doing more than just removing the dead skin cells from your nose.</p>
<p>Campaigners say the tiny plastic beads contained in many facial scrubs, shower gels and toothpastes are causing chaos when they are flushed through the sewerage system and out to sea, where they are eaten by marine animals.</p>
<p>Greenpeace wants the government to introduce a blanket ban on the beads.</p>
<p>"They end up in the stomachs of aquatic life at all stages of the food chain, from plankton through to fish, dolphins and whales. Microbeads cause serious and painful health problems for these animals," Greenpeace campaigner Sarah Yates said.<br /> <br /> "The latest studies are showing that some juvenile fish actually prefer to eat microbeads over their natural food source, which is leading to severe behavioural changes that threaten their survival."</p>
<p>Most wastewater treatment technology was not capable of filtering out all micro plastics, including microbeads, because they were too small, said.</p>
<p>Some retailers and manufacturers are already taking action.</p>
<p>Countdown has removed all microbeads from its home brand products.</p>
<p>Brands such as The Body Shop, Unilever, L'Oreal, Clarins, and Clearasil have pledged their support to an Australian campaign to stop using the beads.</p>
<p>Johnson & Johnson said it had met its goal of having alternatives available by the end of 2015 and was planning to remove all microbeads from products by the end of next year.</p>
<p>A spokesman for New Zealand supermarket, Foodstuffs, said its home brand products did not contain any microbeads. "We are currently surveying all of our external suppliers of personal care products about whether they use microbeads at all. Early indications are that the number of their products still using them is very small. We are confident any suppliers still using microbeads are committed to ending this practice."</p>
<p>Does this information deter you from using beauty products with microbeads in them? Let us know in the comments below.</p>
<p><em>Written by Susan Edmunds. First appeared on <a href="http://Stuff.co.nz" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Stuff.co.nz.</span></strong></a></em></p>
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