Environmental Sustainability in a Time of Change by Robert Brinkmann

Author:Robert Brinkmann
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9783030282035
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Plastic Microbeads

Plastic microbeads started to be used in a variety of commercial products in the last two decades. The beads are used as a mild abrasion in face cleansers, soaps, toothpaste, and cleaning products. The small beads are difficult to see with a naked eye, but they end up being washed through plumbing systems into wastewater plants. They pass through these systems into surface water bodies because most plants are unable to remove them. Once they enter surface water, they can be eaten by organisms instead of their regular food source. In addition, microbeads have entered the human food and drinking water systems.

In 2015, the United States became the first national government to ban microbeads in rinse-off products due to their environmental impact (Schessi et al. 2019). The ban took effect after several states took action to restrict their use in products. Since then, Canada, North Korea, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, Taiwan, India, and several European countries have banned their use. It is important to note that most of the developing world has not banned microbeads. Thus, they can be sold in products in the poorest parts of the planet.

This situation is symbolic of the larger plastic waste issue across the planet. Much of the developed world ships plastics to the developing world for recycling. This is done because it is expensive to recycle plastic waste in developed countries where wages are high and where environmental regulation makes recycling of plastic difficult. Plus, a large percentage (upward of 40%) is not recycled and must be dumped in some way. The remaining unusable plastic waste is sometimes shredded where it can enter water systems and break down into bead-like particles.

China recently banned the import of plastics for recycling due to all of the problems associated with them. As a result, some illegal plastic recycling operations have opened up around the world, most notably in Malaysia. Here, these plants are largely unregulated and have the potential to cause significant environmental harm (Watson et al. 2019).

While it is fantastic that the western world has confronted the issue of plastic waste by banning plastic beads and by promoting the collection of plastic waste for recycling, the remainder of the world is impacted by the continued manufacture and use of products with plastic beads and by the export of plastic waste. Developed countries are removing the problem from their own systems to create a pastiche of sustainability, while the rest of the world deals with the consequences of overconsumption of plastics in other areas.

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