This is a fantastic article about the huge cumulative impact plastics are having in our environment. When I first read about the existence of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Gyre (a sea of floating plastic twice the size of Texas) I knew we had to start making serious changes.
Something that shocked me to read in this article: many body scrubs and other cosmetics are filled with teeny little beads of plastic that are meant to be washed down the drain into our rivers and oceans.
Exfoliants: little granules that massage you as you bathe.” He selects a peach-colored tube of St. Ives Apricot Scrub; its label reads: 100% natural exfoliants. “This stuff is okay. The granules are actually chunks of ground-up jojoba seeds and walnut shells.” Other natural brands use grape seeds, apricot hulls, coarse sugar, or sea salt. “The rest of them,” he says, with a sweep of his hand, “have all gone to plastic.
Of course, even with the natural apricot scrub there’s still the plastic tube to contend with. Next time I get tempted to buy a body scrub product, instead I’ll mix up my own scrub. If you have any non-natural scrubs hanging around the house, you may want to even consider throwing them in the solid waste unused rather than washing them down the drain into the water system.
