Why you should reconsider using micro beaded soap

I've been a "big" fan of water life since I was tiny. Besides taking part in several movements to stop multiple environmental problems I recently started taking part in a new movement about the small little beads popular in face care products.

Microbeads are the small, tiny little plastic beads inside of face soaps. They're suppose to give an exfoliating effect but they've ended up causing a problem. Microbeads are very small and manage to slip through the water treatment facilities. That means they pour into the Great Lakes of the US and the ocean. The great lakes contain 20% of the world's fresh water supply and are being polluted by them.







Through testing scientists have been doing on the great lakes there's 17,000 bits of tiny plastic items per square kilometer in Lake Michigan. They don't have exact numbers but Lake Erie and Lake Ontario apparently had much higher concentrations. That's really scary to think about!



Not only pollution, but the fish in the lakes/ocean are mistaking them for food. Researcher Sherri Mason stated it best.

                 " 'They are about the same size as fish eggs, which means that, essentially, they look like food. To any organism that lives in the water, they are food," Mason says. "So our concern is that, essentially, they are making their way into the food web.' "

Small microbeads are made of plastic which isn't edible and is harming our sealife's eco system. This is a really really big problem, and even when you consider what small chunk of history we have used microbeads and it's already casing problems like this. Please avoid products with labels like "microbeads",  "polyethylene" or "polypropylene" - those are plastic! 



If you want good alternative use something more natural like salt or sugar. They will dissolve in water and not harm fishes and the wildlife so much. The two items in the right of the picture above are safe alternatives.