January 04, 2009

Plastics: Micro scrubbing beads

I love to exfoliate like the next lady...but do you know that many exfoliating face washes have little plastic beads that you are rubbing all over your face and then pouring straight down the drain and into the water way? Oh yes, its true. And more often than not they don't get filtered out of the water system because they are so small, and they go right into the ocean fills as described into the post below.

So one small thing we can do is not to buy these products, and instead buy products with natural exfoliants.

Its ashame that consumers even have to watch out for this...these companies should not even be allowed to sell plastic beads that are meant to go straight down the drain. They know they don't decompose, they know that wildlife are feeding on them, which means we are feeding on them too. In the closed loop world we live in, they are basically permitted to contaminate us in a law abiding way. Oy times a million.

2 comments:

gisele said...

I use baking soda. A little dry baking soda in your hand, mix with water to form a paste, and scrub away. I originally heard about that in "Don't Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me" by Paula Begoun. Works great and it's cheap. About the same concoction I would use to clean my sink.

Sharon said...

Thinking about how something we supposedly use to "make us pretty" having such a toxic effect on the environment is real eye opener.

My vote for exfoliating is a good old fashioned washcloth. My mom would be proud.