I’ve stopped… Buying facewash and toothpaste with microbeads

This is something that is actually banned in Ontario, US and UK however, if you’re reading this outside of these places, this may not be the case. Of course the exfoliating effect of little beads in facewash and toothpaste gives you nice results, but it is at the expense of your health and the environment.

This doesn’t mean that you need to stop exfoliating your face and God forbid you stop brushing your teeth. There are options that exfoliate with the harmful microplastics. I like to use the St. Ives Green Tea Face Scrub. Take a look a this comprehensive list made by the Guardian for the brands are safe to use.

Why

Microplastics are tiny plastic beads (smaller than 2mm) put into cosmetics and products to add an exfoliating texture. Basically any additive beginning with poly- (ie. polypropylene, polyethylene, polymethyl) is plastic.

These microplastics are too small to be filtered out by water treatment facilities and end up in the oceans, fish and eventually in your food and water. CBC conducted a global study with 259 bottles of water in 9 different countries and found 93% of these tested positive with microplastics.