In the previous blog post, we discussed two countries that have enacted microbead bans, though other complementary or follow-up course of action was subject to each government; UK has nation-wide levies on single-use plastics, while US is divided on the implementation or rejection of plastic bans from state to state. In this post, I’ll focus on two countries closer to home, from which we could potentially model our own environmental policies and laws after.
South Korea
South Korea banned the use of microbeads that were <5mm in cosmetics in July of 2017, and the Regulation on the Safety Standards of Cosmetics was to be amended to include this statement (Chemical Watch, 2017). When we take into consideration the proliferation of Korean skincare and Korean makeup brands around the world, this step taken to ban microbeads is one that undoubtedly affects a large proportion of brands and companies in this industry. However, this rule was explicitly stated to ban microbead substance in rinse-off products. Fabric softener capsules were excluded from this legislation due to the lack of substitutes for the microbeads. However, the South Korean government has promise that it would continue to regulate these products and gradually phase out microbead usage with time as well.
Adding on to the original microbead ban in 2017, the government also announced that it would be banning microbead usages in detergents and toothpastes from 2021 onwards (Lim, 2019). Given the dedication towards the gradual phasing out of microbead usage that the government has shown, it is clear that it has taken businesses into consideration, making sure to acknowledge the limitations of its policies and laws. In addition, the consistent updates to the laws to keep up with the evolving society and its needs is commendable.
Taiwan
Similar to South Korea, Taiwan announced that it would ban all cosmetic microbead usage, having modelled its policy and ban after the US and UK. Though the ban did not come into effect until July 2018, the government had already started to make preparations by ordering reductions in microbead quantities from producers of cosmetic products that previous used microbeads extensively. These cosmetic products have been noted to include shampoos, toothpastes and other types of soaps, which is important as it ensures that producers are not able to exploit loopholes in order to continue using microbeads (Lai, 2017). Products that continued to have microbeads were subject to heavy fines.
In 2019, Taiwan expanded its laws to include polymer particles (e.g. solid synthetic waxes) as having plastic particles smaller than 5mm, which would come into effect in March this year (Chemycal, 2019). In the same way, we see that the Taiwanese government has conducted its microbead bans in phases to allow ample time for business to adapt to the new rules. However, one could note that detergents and fabric softeners which are notorious for high levels of microbeads, have not been included into the legislation. Perhaps this is a potential area of improvement for the government to look into in its next phase of microbead banning, in order to ensure that the issue is suitably managed without excluding certain sources of microbeads.
To conclude, we see that these governments have all taken one step or other to gradually reduce the use of microbeads with renewed knowledge on its disastrous impacts on human health and safety, as well as the environment. Although Singapore has yet to identify microbeads and microplastics as a real threat to the environment, I believe it is a matter of time before microbead banning becomes a common law for many countries, given the growing concerns of its environmental effects.
Bibliography:
Chemical Watch. (2016). South Korea proposing microbeads ban in cosmetics. Chemical Watch. Retrieved 14 October 2020, from https://chemicalwatch.com/50267/south-korea-proposing-microbeads-ban-in-cosmetics
Chemycal. (2019). Taiwan to Ban Solid Synthetic Wax in Cosmetics | Microbeads. Retrieved 14 October 2020, from https://chemycal.com/news/5dd63379-ac8f-4342-b2fc-4f6d2a499166/Taiwan_to_Ban_Solid_Synthetic_Wax_in_Cosmetics__Microbeads
Lai, J. (2017). Taiwan to ban all cosmetics containing microbeads. Taiwan News. Retrieved 14 October 2020, from https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3225656
Lim, C. (2019). S. Korea bans microbeads for toothpaste and detergents from 2021. Aju Daily. Retrieved 14 October 2020, from https://www.ajudaily.com/view/20191126175838175
