EU will force cosmetic companies to pay to reduce micropollutants

Microplastics are tiny pollutants often found in cosmetic products that end up in wastewater and eventually on beaches and in the sea. Photograph: Susanne Fritzsche/Alamy

Beauty companies will have to pay more to clean up micropollutants after EU negotiators struck a new deal to treat sewage.

Under draft rules that follow the “polluter pays principle”, companies that sell medicines and cosmetics will have to cover at least 80% of the extra costs needed to get rid of tiny pollutants that are dirtying urban wastewater. Governments will pay the rest, members of the bloc said, in an effort to prevent vital products from becoming too expensive or scarce.