The California Assembly voted today to ban the sale of consumer products containing plastic microbeads. Microbeads are tiny particles of plastic used in facial scrubs, shampoo, soap, toothpaste, eyeliner, lip gloss, deodorant, and sunblock. When these products are washed down a sink or shower drain, they aren’t removed by treatment at a wastewater plant—so they enter San Francisco Bay. Microbeads are being found in the tissues of birds and marine mammals, and open-water swimmers can swallow them. Baykeeper has been using our pollution patrol boat to assist the San Francisco Estuary Institute in collecting data on microbead pollution in the Bay.
Baykeeper supports this legislation, which is sponsored by our environmental partners, including Clean Water Action and 5 Gyres. The ban in plastic microbeads will next be considered by the California Senate.