Plastic microbeads are a common ingredient of cosmetic and personal care products such as face scrubs, soaps, lotions and toothpastes. They are added to these products for a number of purposes, such as to make the product more abrasive or for decoration.
Despite the relatively minor contribution of cosmetics and personal care products containing plastic microbeads to marine plastic contamination, social pressure is moving more and more countries to establish legislative bans on the use of plastic microbeads in this type of product. While all contributions to reducing contamination count, an analysis of the economic and legal implications is advisable, considering that the voluntary phase-out by the industry has proven to be successful.
