What do tiny plastic beads have to do with animals? Microbeads have been added to many products, e.g. toothpaste, shower gels, soaps, etc. These plastic particles will then wander from your bathroom over the drainage system into the waters flowing into the oceans. And there they will be eaten by the animals. due to the size of these particles there is no way of filtering them out of the water and it has been noticed that some fish are no longer able to swim into deeper water due to the buoyancy connected to the plastic in their system.
A ban has been successfully introduced into law:
“Congress has backed a bill banning the use of microbeads in personal care products. And just last week, President Obama signed this bill into law.
Microbeads might be tiny, but this legislation is huge. The new law means companies will phase out the sale of products containing microbeads over the next two years, and stop making personal care products with microbeads altogether by July 1, 2017.
These small plastic particles have been a staple ingredient in everyday products we use like body washes, facial scrubs and toothpastes. Since they’re too small to be filtered out by water treatment plants, they flow straight from our sinks to the ocean and into the mouths and gills of sea creatures around the world.”
You can read more here:
http://blog.oceanconservancy.org/2016/01/08/victory-microbeads-banned-in-the-u-s/
http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-09-30/why-canada-banning-microbeads
http://www.beatthemicrobead.org/en/
Thank you for spreading the news on animal awareness!