You may have seen recent news reports about microbeads, their use in cosmetics and the fact that many people want to ban them. If not, where have you been? We get asked about our products and whether they contain microbeads a lot. Our answer is simple. We don’t use microbeads in our products! We thought we’d share a little about our reasons behind this, our ethos as a company and the ingredients that we do use. Hope this post helps to clear it up!
What are microbeads?
Microbeads are really tiny pieces of plastic that are used in products such as exfoliating scrubs and some toothpastes. They’re so tiny that they can’t be filtered out when we flush them down the sink, and so they end up being washed into the ocean. Once there, they find their way into the stomach of marine life, and into the food chain as a result.
So what does this mean? Every time we use an exfoliating face wash, or a cleaning product that contains microbeads, we are flushing 100,000 plastic beads into the ocean. Every single time. And that is not good.
Ocean plastic
There is already around 8 million tonnes of plastic in our oceans already, without microbeads. This plastic can’t go anywhere, apart from the stomachs of the creatures that live in the ocean. So to remove it costs time and money. And if its not removed, it endangers the delicate balance of life in the ocean. Microbeads are simply adding to the already damaging levels of plastic in our oceans, and its time something was done about that.
Microbeads don’t just affect marine life…
Studies have now found that birds are ingesting microbeads too (a staggering 90%!), and not only that, but we humans are swallowing them too! Every time we brush our teeth with toothpaste that contains microbeads, we are ingesting pieces of plastic. Ugh! We’re also getting it from eating seafood that has had no choice over it all too. Its a vicious, man-made cycle.
What can we do?
We can make sure that we buy ethically. We can make sure that we read labels. We can make sure we don’t make this problem worse. At the time of writing, America and Canada have made moves to ban the use of microbeads, and in the UK large companies such as Asda, Boots, Avon, the BodyShop and L’Oreal have pledged not to use them in their own brand products. But is that enough? A petition has been called to have them banned here too- you can sign here.
What do we use in our products?
We don’t use microbeads! What we do use is only the purest, finest ingredients- carefully sourced from organic, sustainable, vegetable oil plantations across the world. We only choose suppliers who have the same business ethics as us and who are able to trace the origin of each ingredient to its source, so in turn we are able to help marginalised communities to help themselves. We’re deeply passionate about our imprint on the environment and ensure all our packaging is recycled, recyclable, biodegradable and made in this county. We’re equally passionate about rural enterprise and source as much as we can locally in our bid to help other small rural businesses and cut down on transport miles.
