Imagine a perfectly round, plastic ball smaller than a pinhead. That’s what a microbead is. They’ve been included in facial scrubs, toothpaste, household cleaners and other products that exfoliate for decades. Microbeads enhance the ability of cleaning products to scour surfaces, and remove dirt on everyday items and dead cells on people’s skins.
Microbeads are invisible to the naked eye. But their environmental footprint can be huge. Once washed down the drain, these particles can end up in rivers, estuaries and oceans. Here, they can live for hundreds of years, absorbing chemicals and leaching chemicals out into the environment.
