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Exfoliating beads causing water pollution

By , September 30, 2013

Unfortunately, those tiny plastic beads in facial cleansers and other skin products are causing water pollution.  They pass right through waste water filters and flow into lakes and oceans – and, because they look like fish eggs, they’re mistaken for food by fish and other wildlife.

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According to an article in Mother Jones on September 9, 2013 research has shown more than 450,000 microbeads are floating around in every square kilometer (about .6 miles) of our Great Lakes, polluting the Lakes. The consumption of these useless plastic beads by fish is creating enough environmental problems that Unilever, John and Johnson, Procter & Gamble, and the Body Shop have promised to discontinue their use – but here’s the catch.  It will take them more than three years to do it.

So do your part – look for cleaners with natural exfoliators like almond bits, or other non-plastic parts.  Mother Jones suggests going back to a wash cloth and soap!   Click on Flying High Solo’s “Back to the Bar…. Soap that is” for more information on how our cleaning habits may be dirtying the environment and causing water pollution and note our simple solution!

By Bojinka Bishop

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