July 23, 2014 — Next time you brush your teeth or exfoliate your face, spare a thought for Lake Erie.
Many toiletries contain barely visible plastic microbeads that scrub and polish – and make their way into lakes because they’re too small to be caught by most wastewater treatment plants.
Research in 2012 and 2013 has shown that the Great Lakes are full of them.
“One of the concerns is these plastic beads almost serve like sponges in the natural environment,” said Laura Haight, senior environmental associate at the New York Public Interest Research Group. “They will soak up toxic chemicals in the waterways (and) get ingested by fish … It is part of what’s contributing to making our fish unsafe to eat.”
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman took up the cause, releasing a report on the problem in May and promoting legislation to ban their use in the state.
That bill passed the Assembly, but died in the Senate in June. Illinois has passed a ban. And the four biggest personal product companies in this country have all pledged to eliminate microbeads from their products.
New York washes 19 tons of microbeads down the drain each year, based on average per-person use of products containing microbeads, according to the attorney general’s report.
Read the full story at the Utica Observer Dispatch