Industry pledge is ‘full of loopholes’

A PLEDGE by the cosmetics industry to voluntarily remove the ‘plastic poison’ microbeads from its products is riddled with loopholes, it is claimed.

Experts warn that up to 40 per cent of products containing the beads or other microplastics are not covered by the industry initiative.

The trade body Cosmetics Europe has promised to voluntarily remove beads by 2020 – but this only covers ‘rinse-off’ products used to exfoliate or cleanse.

Critics say the controls do not include equally harmful, yet smaller, microplastics used in other products, such as sun creams, body lotions, make-up, deodorants and shampoo. The scheme does not cover other household products like washing powders.

These loopholes mean that only a comprehensive legal ban will have a meaningful effect, campaigners say.

The problems have been highlighted by independent environment analysts Eunomia, which has produced studies on plastic pollution for the European Commission.

Their research found that only 2 per cent of the cosmetics market have made a public commitment to removing microbeads at all. Greenpeace has also said these voluntary measures by manufacturers do not go far enough.

Louise Edge, its senior oceans campaigner, said: ‘Without a full ban on microbeads in any household product which can go down the drain, some companies will just keep on trying to get away with spouting this garbage.’

Cosmetics Europe said microbeads are ‘only a minor fraction of the problem’ of plastic pollution of the seas. It denied there are loopholes in its policies and insisted there is no need for a legal ban.