“Plastics” may have been the career advice for The Graduate, but since the Sixties the mantra might be, "Plastic? Oh no! Banned" because companies using them in products have comeunder fire for their impact on the environment.
The latest form of plastic to come under attack isn't about packaging, but the use of tiny pieces of plastic within products: the microbead, the tiny pellet found in personal care items produced by consumer packaged goods companies.
One CPG giant, Unilever, has now capitulated to environmental activists and agreed to stop using microbeads in its personal-care items, such as facial scrubs and toothpaste, following a social media protest involving Europe's Plastic Soup Foundation and its supporters.
The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) and the North Sea Foundation have been battling for this for years, saying that the little beads are doing serious harm to oceans and other ecosystems, theGuardian reports.
"We can confirm that we are phasing out the use of microbeads in all of our personal care products,” Unilever said in a statement published by the Guardian. “The issue of plastics particles in the ocean is an important issue and we have reviewed the use of microbeads in our portfolio (both current products and those in the pipeline). We have decided to phase out the use of plastic micro beads as a 'scrub' material in all of our personal care products. We expect to complete this phase-out globally by 2015."
Now the MCS will turn its efforts to getting other companies to join Unilever and stop using microbeads as well.
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