What's in That Exfoliant - Plastic?

Microscopic plastic material is forever I’ll be the first to admit that I know next to nothing about exfoliants. The only reason I bring it up now is because of a book I am currently reading and that I recommend called “The World Without Us” by Alan Weisman.

As the title of the book suggests, Weisman’s approach to considering the human impact on the Earth is through an examination of what would happen should we suddenly disappear – poof – and leave everything behind.

Weisman devotes a chapter to the eternal nature of polymers – plastic. Scientists studying the beaches along Plymouth Harbor in the UK have recorded the steady, rapid, and persistent appearance and growth of plastic detritus coming ashore, many times after riding ocean currents across the Atlantic.

Much of this plastic requires a microscope to see, but the smaller the bits are, the larger the problems for the environment become.

Which brings me to exfoliants, the subject of our post today.

One young scientist working with marine biologist Richard Thompson, the principal investigator for the project, made an alarming discovery one day while shopping in a pharmacy.

What he discovered was a cornucopia of products that contain tiny bits of plastic or “micro polyethylene granules” or “polyethylene micro-spheres” or perhaps “polyethylene beads”: hand cleaners, shower massage creams, body scrubs and polish; products with brand names like Ponds, Colgate Neutrogena, Clearasil, to name but a few.

There are exfoliants on the market that claim to be “100% natural” (like St. Ives Apricot Scrub) – and in fact some are. The actual granules that make up the exfoliant properties are made from ground-up jojoba seeds, walnut shells, apricot hulls, course sugar, or sea salt.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of these types of products have gone to plastic.

Tiny microscopic bits of plastic from these and other sources – many sources – get into the food chain at the most fundamental level and essentially clog it.

As Thompson will tell you: as goes the zooplankton, so goes everything that feeds on it – eventually. If very indirectly, that includes you and me.

So here’s all I’m saying. Take a glance the next time you’re buying a tube of toothpaste or some sort of body cream – anything that “exfoliates” – and see what its made of.

If it includes “poly” and “ethyl” consider that the stuff its made of will still be washing around in the environment a thousand years from now, just as it now sits in your hand.

Tags: exfoliant, plastic+ocean, polyethylene, environment

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[ READER COMMENTS ]

1

Paula, Dover said:

Recently, while buying new skincare products, I declined the purchase of their "scrub" based on what I'd read in Alan Wiesman's book. The consultant was not convinced, so I'm sending her a this blog. I hope she brings it to the attention to the head lady in Dallas!

Posted at 09:35 AM, on June 10 2008

2

Tom said:

Paula, thanks for the comment. I'd be interested to know what your consultant says after you show her this blog!

Posted at 02:39 PM, on June 10 2008

What's in That Exfoliant - Plastic?

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