In the well-lit aisles of your drugstore, millions of tiny and dangerous pollutants lurk in the cheerful packaging of your favorite exfoliating cleansers. But in Illinois, you’ll notice a distinct lack of certain facial washes. In a groundbreaking decision, Illinois recently became the first state to ban the use of the microbead, a popular ingredient in many face washes.

Manufacturers use microbeads in their facial washes to rub away dead skin cells, allowing users to scrub their faces to remove dirt and makeup. Microbeads are tiny plastic particles – designed to slip down your bathroom sink, each less than a millimeter in size.

While these plastic beads may seem tiny, it’s their small size that makes them such a nuisance. Just as these beads slip down the drain, they also slip through sewage systems and water treatment plants, making their way to the Great Lakes in mass quantities. In fact, microbeads accounted for about 90 percent of the plastic pollution in Lake Erie alone.

Unfortunately, their size and color makes them closely resemble fish eggs – effectively causing fish and wildlife to consume them and soak up the toxins like sponges. These tiny plastics food create a grave ecological threat, as they are being incorporated into the food web at an alarming rate. Scientists found over 6,000 microbeads on average per every 0.1 gram of facial cleanser, and these cleansers are used widely across the country.

Illinois is leading the country in eliminating this dangerous and often disregarded pollutant. The manufacture and sale of products containing the beads will be banned by 2018. However, many companies such as Unilever and Johnson & Johnson are one step ahead – already agreeing to phase out microbeads on a global scale, without legislative pressure. Alternatives to these plastic exfoliating beads include more environmentally sound options such as crushed apricot pits, cocoa beans or sea salt.

So, what can consumers like you and me do to eliminate plastics from our bathroom cabinets? “Polyethylene” and “polypropylene” on ingredient labels mean that the product contains plastic, indicative of the dangerous microbead. Some manufactures even advertise the ingredient, putting “microbeads” on the product label. However, with recent pressure from environmental groups and lawmakers, the inclusion of microbeads won’t be anything for companies to brag about for long.

In general, the plastics in microbeads won’t degrade within the consumer’s lifetime. It is simply not logical to design a disposable product that will last forever. Why create a product that will only be used for a few seconds but will continue to negatively affect the ecosystem for decades?

Change starts with the individual. While eliminating microbeads may seem like an insignificant lifestyle change, it will have a huge impact in the long run. After all, if we can eliminate microbeads, effectively we’ll be getting rid of the majority of the plastics in the Great Lakes, where 20 percent of the world’s freshwater is stored. This will prevent problems with fish and wildlife, as well as protecting ourselves and future generations from the many toxins leaching into drinking water.

As responsible consumers, changing out our facial washes for something without exfoliating microbeads is a concrete step we can take in solving the environmental crisis that faces our planet. Liking a Facebook post isn’t environmental activism – we need to be taking real action and dramatically changing our lifestyles.

The post Microbeads: A not-so-tiny problem appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Residents of Hancock County, Illinois are organizing an effort to prevent an industrial hog confinement facility from opening in their area. Junction Acres LLC was seeking permission to open an 18,000-unit facility outside of La Crosse in Hancock County IL. The local county board had been set to approve the facility without holding a pubic hearing. Residents circulated a petition requiring the board to hold a hearing, and one is now scheduled.

Local citizens have formed a group known as “Saving Our Rural Environment” (SORE) to block further industrial hog farm construction. SORE is concerned that the project was originally affiliated with Professional Swine Management, a firm with a history of environmental issues at its facilities. Possible problems include degradation of air quality and pollution of water supplies. SORE notes that they are not anti-livestock, in fact it is local small farmers doing the objecting. The problem is when industrial operations impose their presence upon communities with little or no warning and degrade the local environment.

When problems with modern livestock production facilities come up, most people are familiar with the issue of antibiotic overuse. Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) would be impossible without massive doses of antibiotics, which cause a gamut of ongoing problems. Those living near hog farms in North Carolina have been documented as having higher rates of a variety of lung problems, including: eye irritation, wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath, sore throat and nausea, as a result of air pollution from the facilities. Most of the problems are associated with waste particles that go airborne.

SORE is also concerned about possible impact to water quality. There is a spring-fed well near the proposed site. Junction Acres LLC has stated that they would use a concrete lagoon lined with a rubberized barrier. There is still a long history of hog farms and other CAFOs causing extensive pollution of local water supplies even when precautions such as lined lagoons are used. Deaths directly resulting from animal factory pollution can be documented as running into the hundreds. Then there is the loss of property values and quality of life that go with living next door to an industrial hog farm.

Wild pigs have a wide range, frequently grazing over many miles in a day. Pigs raised in a CAFO are confined to a tiny cage of metal, which restricts movement and has a grill instead of a floor to make waste disposal easier. Animals in a CAFO frequently have deformed feet and break bones struggling against their confinement. Pigs are intelligent animals; easily as intelligent as a dog, so it would be difficult to calculate what effect such treatment has on the animals over the course of their life, although we know that they “act up” when tightly confined.

By the time a hog is slaughtered at a CAFO, the animal has been dosed heavily with antibiotics, while typically still having respiratory infections, deformed feet, pus pockets and are covered in their own urine and excrement. Worse still are the “culling pens,” where the animals not fit for slaughter (unlike those just described) are placed or dumped to die. Animals dead and dying are frequently mixed together in this process.

North Carolina became a center for industrial hog farming thanks to concerted efforts by the industry and the politicians who were rewarded generously by the industry. It proved impossible for the small local farmers to fight the power of big money and politicians seeking reelection funds. SORE and the residents of Hancock County may have a tough fight ahead of them. Given the stakes involved, the residents appear to be doing the right thing.

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