Amazing News: Obama Signs Law Banning Microbeads

Photo by Jrockley (Creative Commons/Wikipedia)

Microbeads have been on my sh*t list since I first found out about them. They’re tiny synthetic plastic particles used as an abrasive in many mainstream personal care and beauty products like soaps, facial scrubs, and toothpaste. The mega womp factor is that these tiny plastic particles are too tiny to clean up (they are the size of a pinhead), and some marine life mistake small plastic for food (which later gets ingested by people who eat marine life ← another reason to go vegan).

This week President Obama signed the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015, a bipartisan bill that prohibits selling and distributing products containing microbeads. It will officially go into effect July 1st, 2017. In the meantime, be sure to look out for these nasty lil’ boogers. There are so many alternatives to microbeads, and your best best is sticking with all-natural beauty brands that use fine sugar, salt, baking soda, coffee, oatmeal, etc. as exfoliators. Also, be sure to check out the kickass, earth-friendly DYI face & body scrubs on VBR. 😉 xo