Ban the beads

Banning plastic microbeads, the tiny exfoliants found in personal care products, would boost the health of our waterways, our marine life, and — since taxpayers shoulder much of the cleanup costs — our pocketbooks. The California Legislature has the opportunity to pass Assembly Bill 888, a bill that would ban microbeads by 2020. Time is running out on this year’s legislative session, and legislators need to act now.

It’s difficult for anyone to make a strong argument in favor of plastic microbeads. Because they are so small and don’t disintegrate, they bypass wastewater treatment plants and make their way into our waterways. In addition to creating tons of plastic pollution every year, they compromise the safety of marine life.

“A single product can have up to 350,000 microbeads,” said Brian O’Hara, communications coordinator for the environmental advocacy group Californians Against Waste. “And microbeads are particularly concerning when it comes to freshwater sources.”

In a time of drought, California doesn’t have many freshwater sources to risk.

Facing consumer pressure and a growing number of state bans on the plastic beads, manufacturers are already starting to phase them out. The least-damaging alternatives are natural exfoliants, like cocoa beans and apricot shells.

But some manufactures still use beads made with biodegradable plastic — a substance that sounds good, but frankly, doesn’t always biodegrade in real-world conditions.

Most state bans on plastic microbeads have an exemption for biodegradable plastic. AB888 doesn’t make an exception for those substances.

“We’re not going to allow there to be a loophole for a publicly unproven and untested allegedly biodegradable product to be released into the environment,” said AB888’s author, state Assemblyman Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica. “And a publicly proven and tested biodegradable product doesn’t exist today.”

This is Bloom’s second attempt at passing a plastic microbead ban. Last year’s bill cleared the state Assembly and failed by one vote in the state Senate.

If he were willing to budge on the biodegradable loophole, he’d probably get AB888 passed with no problems.

But Bloom doesn’t want to make a potentially dangerous compromise, and getting this bill past the state Senate isn’t going to be easy this year, either.

State legislators have the opportunity to make a big difference in the health of not only California’s environment and marine life, but the nation’s. California has a huge market, and if personal-goods manufacturers must serve this state with responsible products, the impact could put plastic microbeads out of service for good.

It’s time for the state Senate to pass AB888.