You can read that blog again here: How to: smooth summer legs
Plastics are all around us. Most shockingly, they are in the beauty products we apply to our face and skin, daily. Alarmingly too, a huge proportion of the population aren't aware of this and so the destruction of our beautiful planet continues to worsen. The implementation of the 5p charge for plastic bags in Britain this month, brought the issue to the forefront of my mind again.
Microplastics, or you may have heard it referred to as micro beads, are added to the every day products we use. They are too fine for us to notice half the time. They're in things you would never dream of, such as toothpaste, shampoo/shower gel and even deodorant. I have been aware of the issue for a few years and although I backed the cause, I didn't make a conscious effort to adhere to it all the time. After being reminded of the importance of it, I've tried to the last couple of years. I've tried to make sure I only use beauty products that don't contain unnecessary plastics. I've always liked St. Ives skincare, a UK brand which uses natural ingredients. According to St. Ives "we make every effort to source our ingredients sustainably, cut waste, and use eco-friendly packaging." Keep up the good work guys.
In 2011, a Dutch non-government organisation, the North Sea Foundation made the first steps to abolish plastics use in cosmetics. They started writing to companies asking them to stop using microbeads as soon as they could. Not long after, in 2012, the Beat the Microbead campaign was launched by the North Sea Foundation and the Plastic soup foundation. After a revolutionary twitter campaign, Unilever, pharmaceutical giant agreed to phase out the use of microbeads across all their products. Global companies like Johnson and Johnson, L'oreal, Procter and Gamble and Colgate have also followed suit since then but haven't given a fix date as to when they will have phased out use by.
This is why the campaign needs backing. Change is happening, change is coming but it's not coming soon enough. More needs to be done in order to combat this.
Selfridges backed a similar campaign this summer, called Project Ocean. It had the same premise behind it - to make our ocean's better, with less plastic in it, for our wildlife. Microbeads from our products go to one place only, our oceans. They are washed away down our plug holes and affect the smaller creatures that can't stand up and fight for themselves. You can read more about the campaign here.
I did a little test the other day to see how readily available microbead free products were on an average high street. I went in to my local Boots and Superdrug, Body Shop and Lush looking for some of the microbead free products found on the PDF below. Result: I found nearly all of them. There really isn't any excuse. Thanks to the companies who have already stopped, we can easily make the change to plastic free products nowadays.
Here's a PDF where you can read through all the products currently on the market that are microbead free, yourself. Why don't you check it out and see if your products are on there? You might surprise yourself and realise you're doing more for your planet than you realised.
There are so many great companies on that list, all doing their bit to damage the planet less.
To name a few...Kheil's, Lush, Soap and Glory (I always buy from Boots), Elemis and of course The Body Shop.
Shops such as Waitrose, Tesco and Wilko also make plastic free cosmetic products. A huge shout out to all of them (and the rest on the list).
If you'd like to read more, you can on the website for the national campaign against micro beads here.
Citizen's campaign
A guardian article
You can join the Facebook campaign, by liking the page.
*Photo taken from Greenpeace's website. You can read their article on the issue here.
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