Marine pollution caused by Consumers of beauty products
Dear Humans,
Have you ever had a really important event to go for? Perhaps a first date, or a job interview? During these events, you’d want your hair to feel perfect and skin to look flawless. Without a second thought, it is habitual to give your face an additional facial scrub or use a little more hair product. When you wash these products off your bodies, what you do not realise is that you are unknowingly polluting my marine ecosystem. Your beauty products contain small particles known as microbeads which seep into the oceans and affect my marine biodiversity. Let me tell you a little bit more about these little devils hiding in your everyday facial cleansers and lip sticks……
(Source: White, 2016)
More about Micro-beads
What are Microbeads?
Microbeads are tiny solid plastic particles hidden in your beauty products to create a glossy surface and act as fillers (Miraj, Parveen, & Zedan, 2019) . Microbeads are present in numerous types of beauty products such as skincare products and cosmetics, most of which you use in your everyday lives (Miraj, Parveen, & Zedan, 2019).
How to identify Microbeads?
Microbeads are present in several different forms (Lei et al., 2017). These are the common microplastic ingredients:
- Polyethylene
- Polypropylene
- Polymethyl methacrylate
- Nylon
- Polyurethane
- Acrylates copolymer
Why is it a problem?
Microbeads are designed to be small enough to wash off from our bodies. With it’s small size, it is to no surprise that it escapes wastewater treatment systems and slips into my water bodies (Möhlenkamp, Purser, & Thomsen, 2018). Over the past 50 years, 3 x 10^5 tons of microplastics have accumulated in the environment (Sun, Ren, & Ni, 2020) . Currently, there are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic in my oceans.
Now that you’re familiar with these little devils, I’ll delve into the consequences and extent of marine pollution in my next post. Till then, I’ll leave you with a video to get you more acquainted with these microbeads.
Video:
Troubled and concerned vibes,
Mother Nature
References:
Lei, K., Qiao, F., Liu, Q., Wei, Z., Qi, H., Cui, S., . . . An, L. (2017). Microplastics releasing from personal care and cosmetic products in China. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 123(1-2), 122-126. doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.09.016
Miraj, S. S., Parveen, N., & Zedan, H. S. (2019). Plastic microbeads: Small yet mighty concerning. International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 1-17. doi:10.1080/09603123.2019.1689233
Möhlenkamp, P., Purser, A., & Thomsen, L. (2018). Plastic microbeads from cosmetic products: An experimental study of theirhydrodynamic behaviour, vertical transport and resuspension in phytoplanktonand sediment aggregates. Elem Sci Anth, 6(1), 61. doi:10.1525/elementa.317
Sun, Q., Ren, S., & Ni, H. (2020). Incidence of microplastics in personal care products: An appreciable part of plastic pollution. Science of The Total Environment, 742, 140218. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140218
White 2016-09-05T16:11:00 01:00, K. (2016, September 05). Plastic microbeads to be banned from personal care products. Retrieved September 07, 2020, from https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/environment/plastic-microbeads-to-be-banned-from-personal-care-products/541555.article