Summary: There may be tiny bits of plastic in your toothpaste. These small plastic pieces are part of many personal care products and are designed to wash down the drain. However, due to their non-biodegradable nature and miniscule size, the plastic pellets sail through wastewater treatment plants, enter water bodies, and cause persistent environmental damage. A bill is before the Vermont Senate that aims to ban this plastic from manufacture and retail in the state in order to prevent harm to environmental and human health.
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By Olympia Bowker
There’s no denying it plastic pollution is an ugly problem. State legislation and plastic prevention projects nationwide illustrate the need to address this unsightly issue. But what about the plastic you can’t see?
Microbeads are a common ingredient in many personal care items. Microbeads are tiny (less than 5 millimeters) plastic beads that act as little scrubbers in products. These beads, which are found in toothpaste and face washes, are designed to wash down the drain. But where do they end up?
When washed down a sink or shower drain, microbeads end up with other wastewater in wastewater treatmentplants. However, these facilities are not designed to catch such tiny plastic pieces. Therefore, microbeads waltz through treatment facilities unscathed and enter water bodies.
There is currently no way to remove microbeads from water once they are introduced. While there are cloth filters that can be installed into wastewater treatment facilities, these filters are few and far between. For example, there are 59 wastewater treatment plants that discharge into Lake Champlain in Vermont, but only 5 have the proper microbead filtration. However, even with filtration, these microbeads don’t just disappear. The sludge caught by these fine filters is either sent to a landfill, or used as biofuel: microbeads included.
So why are microbeads so bad, especially since you can’t even see them? The size of microbeads plays a large role in the danger they pose. Microbeads are made of absorbent plastic; they tend to attract and take in toxic chemicals, such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs), and flame-retardants. All of these chemicals are recognized to have serious impacts on human health. In addition, the small size of microbeads makes them easy to swallow: when fish swallow the microbeads these chemicals end up in their system. People eat the fish. This scenario escalates.
Microbeads are harmful to the environment and people alike, and diligent jurisdictions recognize this. Illinois and New York successfully passed bills to ban microbeads, while other states are in hot pursuit of similar legislation. Vermont is among these forward-thinking states and has a m
icrobead ban in the works. On January 28, the Vermont House of Representatives advanced a bill that bans the manufacture and sale of microbeads in the state of Vermont. This Bill, H. 4., was first presented to the House on January 8, 2015. After 20 days on the floor and review by both the Committee on Human Services and the Committee on Fish, Wildlife & Water Resources, H. 4. passed 140 to nonecompletely unopposed.
On January 30, the Bill was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources and Energy. Track the H.4.’s progress here. If passed, this bill will go into effect on July 1 of this year.
As long as microbeads are in personal care products, the miniscule plastics will continue to get into state waters. A ban is the only effective method of fully preventing this type of pollution. Manufacturers agree: Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Colgate, and L’Oreal are all working to replace plastic micobeads with natural, biodegradable replacements such as ground-up fruit pits, oatmeal, and sea salt.
The pending Vermont Bill seeks to align the ban with the Illinois ban. By lining up the timeline for the ban, manufacturers can uniformly phase out microbead use, making compliance with the law realistic.
Olympia Bowker is a third-year JD/Masters of Environmental Law and Policy student at Vermont Law School. Olympia is pursuing dual Water and Land Use Law Certificates and is the Senior Notes Editor at the Vermont Journal of Environment Law . Prior to law school, she earned a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Geography at the University of Vermont, collected plastics samples from the Northeast Pacific Garbage Patch, and worked on the Pacific Crest Trail. Olympia enjoys hiking, reading, and general adventuring.
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