Senate Votes to Ban Plastic Microbeads in Bath Products

The tiny plastic beads in hand soaps, face washes, and a wide variety of other personal care items are quickly on their way out. Considering how harmful they are to the environment, this is definitely a good thing.

On Friday, the Senate voted in favor of banning the little plastic microbeads, and now the bill (the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015), is now awaiting the president's signature. The microbeads, which are included in products as exfoliants, are tiny enough to wash down the drain, through water filtration systems, and out into lakes and oceans. The beads are approximately the size of fish eggs, which many ocean-dwellers happen to eat, and while fish eggs can be safely digested, plastic microbeads cannot.

According to a 2014 NPR article, "If fish eat microbeads, which can soak up toxins like a sponge, scientists suggest that those chemicals could be passed on to humans and wildlife."

Banning these microbeads apparently makes a lot of sense to a lot of people, given how easily the bill has passed through legislation. Even companies in the personal care industry have begun phasing microbeads out of their products. According to WWD, Lezlee Westine, the chief executive officer and president of the Personal Care Products Council, said, “We applaud today’s U.S. Senate passage of the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015, which creates a planned and pragmatic national phase-out process in the interest of both consumers and the personal-care products and cosmetics industry.”

Considering there are plenty of natural exfoliants that aren't harmful to the environment, this legislative action is long overdue.