INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN AGAINST MICROBEADS IN COSMETICS

 01  What are microbeads and what is their function?​

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Microbeads are tiny plastic particles that are added to personal care products. They are used to scrub the skin and have a polarizing effect on for example your teeth. They are also known to fill up products cheaply (up to 10% of a product consists of microbeads!). They flow straight from the drain to the sewer to the ocean where they have a damaging effect on marine life. 

 

 02  Why do manufacturers add microbeads to cosmetics?

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Microbeads are added for their gentle polarizing and scrubbing functions and to fill up products in a cheap way. Natural ingredients like nut shells are more expensive and work better to scrub your skin, which means you need less of the product on a daily basis. This means the natural product lasts longer than a microbead product, so you would have to buy less of it which means less money for the manufacturer. 

 

 03  The app doesn't recognize my products

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The app works on a crowd-sourcing basis, therefore we ask consumers to add products that are not yet recognized. The name and barcode of a product changes in each country so depending on which product you scan and in which country, the app might not recognize your product. You can however check yourself if the product contains the following ingredients: polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and nylon and add it to our database. You can do this via the app or via this form.

 

 04   What do I do with my products that contain microbeads?

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Did you find a product that has plastic ingredients? Best is to throw it away in the bin or send it back to the manufacturer with this letter.

 

 05  I found an ingredient in my product that is not on your list, but I do believe it is plastic. Are they not damaging?

 

​At the moment we discovered that a lot of manufacturers do add different types of microplastic to their ingredients that are not on our list. This could be bio-based or bio-degradable beads or nano-plastic. All these types are damaging to the environment too, so it is best to buy products that are completely made of natural ingredients, like the brands that carry our Zero Plastic Inside logo.