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Some personal care products, such as shower gels, soaps, shampoo, facial scrubs and toothpastes, are formulated with plastic microbeads. The colorful particles, made usually from polyethylene (but sometimes from nylon, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate or polymethyl methacrylate), serve as abrasives and add visual appeal to the products. Unfortunately, they are small enough to pass through sewage treatment plants into waterways and oceans, where they can persist. In the aquatic environment, the microbeads can absorb other pollutants and can be ingested by animals, resulting in an increase in the amount of those pollutants in the food chain.
Under the proposed legislation, called the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015, manufacturing could continue until July 1, 2017 and sales would be phased out from 2018 through 2019. The House bill was sponsored by Republican Fred Upton of Michigan and Democrat Frank Pallone, Jr. of New Jersey. A similar bill is under consideration in the Senate.
- The Guardian
- press release from Consumer Healthcare Products Association, a manufacturers' group
- Detroit News
- The Hill blog
- Consumerist
- Smithsonian
- Center for Effective Government
- TreeHugger
In July, the International Campaign Against Microbeads in Cosmetics has made a list of products which contained microbeads.
(Score: 1) by TheReaperD on Saturday December 12 2015, @05:14PM
We have so much plastic, including microbeads, floating in the ocean that it has created its own island in the pacific ocean. The most conservative size estimate puts it as the size of Texas! We really have a problem with waste and industry and consumers are not going to police themselves about it.
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit
(Score: 2) by Sir Finkus on Saturday December 12 2015, @05:20PM
...floating in the ocean that it has created its own island in the pacific ocean.
Not really. It's just an area where you'll dredge up more garbage than you would in other places. You could sail through the pacific garbage patch and not even notice it. Might see a buoy or two.
Still bad, but not an island.
Join our Folding@Home team! [stanford.edu]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday December 12 2015, @05:25PM
You are correct, but the media has characterized it as an island.
The real impact on people, are reduced harvests of seafood. Birds, fish, marine mammals, and other marine life has been impacted by the trash.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday December 13 2015, @03:38AM
Has this actually been studied? because if it's like other trash, it's probably an improved habitat to something, which in turn feeds something else. (Kinda like how junk cars have been used as foundations for coral reefs.)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Sir Finkus on Sunday December 13 2015, @09:10AM
Yeah, it's been studied. The problem isn't so much the nets and buoys as it is plastic particles. As plastics float around, they degrade, but never really disappear. Eventually they break apart into very small pieces that look like plankton and other small critters that fish like to eat. This isn't very good for them for fairly obvious reasons.
Join our Folding@Home team! [stanford.edu]
(Score: 1) by TheReaperD on Saturday December 12 2015, @06:30PM
Sure, it's not a solid mass you can walk across, it's floating garbage, after all. But, from the pictures I've seen, being able to sail through it without seeing it, not a chance. Now, being able to sail near it, or on the outer edges of the larger zone estimates, sure. The ocean is a big place and the outer edges ebb and flow but, the core mass is impossible to miss. It looks solid, even though it isn't.
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit
(Score: 2) by Sir Finkus on Saturday December 12 2015, @06:38PM
But, from the pictures I've seen, being able to sail through it without seeing it, not a chance.
A lot of the pictures of it aren't really even pictures of it, just stock picture of garbage floating in water, usually in costal areas.
From wikipedia:
The patch is characterized by exceptionally high relative concentrations of pelagic plastics, chemical sludge and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre.[2] Despite its large area, it is of very low density (4 particles per cubic meter), therefore not visible from satellite photography, nor even necessarily to casual boaters or divers in the area. It consists primarily of a small increase in suspended, often microscopic particles in the upper water column.
Still an environmental disaster, but a lot of the portrayals of it are downright dishonest.
Join our Folding@Home team! [stanford.edu]
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Sunday December 13 2015, @01:33AM
Speaking as someone who has sailed (mostly motored) through the Pacific High more than a couple of times. Sir Finkus is correct. You will occasionally see some pieces of fishing gear, net floats (We used to look for the glass floats from Japanese vessels but starting in the late 60s they switched to plastic floats), and an sometimes you'd see something like a plastic bottle or jar or maybe some bit of line or net or sometimes a wooden piling or beam. We used to try to gather up the bottles and jars and bits of net and line, if they weren't too big.
One time we came across a piece of net around 20' long and 8~10' deep on 4 plastic net floats. it was loaded with barnacles, coral, sea weed and even small crabs. We just were able to cut off the floats and the net sank.
The thing to remember is that on a sail boat you are only a few feet above sea level and unless you climbed or were hoisted up the mast, you can not see much further than 1 1/2 mile of the surface in any direction. Even when the conditions were calm and the sea flat as it usually is in the center of the high.
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday December 13 2015, @03:41AM
So as I speculated above -- that piece of floating trash was evidently a dandy habitat for a whole lot of living things. Did sinking it do net good or net harm??
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Saturday December 12 2015, @08:25PM
We really have a problem with waste and industry and consumers are not going to police themselves about it.
the problem is not the consumers, the problem is companies who are paid to take plastics to be recycled and then dump it in the ocean. honestly, if your boat is caught doing that, i think that's reason enough to seize your boat, throw you and your crew overboard then go after your boss with high velocity weaponry.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday December 12 2015, @09:05PM
companies who are paid to take plastics to be recycled and then dump it in the ocean
Is this happening? Are there news reports?
Seems to me that one of the largest organizations doing this was New York City, up till 1992.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by TheReaperD on Saturday December 12 2015, @09:55PM
The problem is that there is no one to do anything about that, assuming it is happening (it wouldn't shock me). Like the toxic waste that was dumped by ships registered to countries in the EU off the coast of Somalia, it was seen by US warships but, they had no authority to do anything. It was the responsibility of the non-existent Somali government to intercept them or a government ship from the country of registry (which was nowhere near the region). Any other country interfering with a ship that is not their registry and not within their coastal waters is, at best, an international incident, at worst, an act of war. We're dealing with centuries old maritime law that is badly needed of a modern update but, no one wants to touch it with a 10,000 meter pole.
Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Sunday December 13 2015, @06:07AM
We're dealing with centuries old maritime law that is badly needed of a modern update but, no one wants to touch it with a 10,000 meter pole.
the laws of nature predate supersede the laws of man. it's survival of the fittest, no authority needed.