Microbeads are Damaging to Environment, Your Skin

by Sierra Ochoa

Every girl knows that the key to a glowing complexion is a flawless skin care routine. Cleanse, tone, exfoliate, treat, moisturize- all the basic steps to maintaining beautiful skin. Depending on your routine, exfoliating is a vital step, but without the right products it can be detrimental to physical health and to the health of the environment. Exfoliating sounds nice in theory: gently scrubbing dead skin cells off your face to reveal healthy rejuvenated skin. It can be damaging though if you do it too often and with the wrong products.

Most of this damage can stem from exfoliating using products that can scar skin from harsh ingredients. A classic ingredient in exfoliating products, whether it be shower gel, face wash, or exfoliants is the microbead.

Microbeads sound like they are harmless. They sound like they would be a girl’s best friend as far as exfoliation goes. Unfortunately, microbeads are not only bad for your skin, they are terrible for the environment.

In 2015 President Barack Obama signed legislation that demanded microbeads be pulled off the market and eventually phased out of American personal care products beginning in 2017. This legislation began to take into effect this past week on July 1, 2017, which will stop the manufacturing of these products.

Microbeads Damaging to Environment These small plastic orbs can even be found in toothpaste. Since they are used for so many self-care products it may be difficult for people to give up these products that have been around for so long. To find a list of all products containing harmful plastic go to BeatTheMicrobead.org. They have a comprehensive list of all products containing the beads.

Here is a sample of products from that list. If you wish to dispose of your microbead products a Forbes writer compiled a list of effective disposal methods. You can even filter out the beads yourself!