May 14, 2014 — The tiny plastic particles that became more popular in soaps and facial scrubs over the last few years are showing up on beaches and in the waters of the Great Lakes, especially Lake Erie.
A report to be released today by state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman renews his call for a first-in-the-nation ban on the sale of products containing the microbeads. And the report offers more details on the environmental effects of the particles, which are about the size of a grain of salt.
A Fredonia State College professor who has been at the forefront of researching microbead pollution in the Great Lakes said their presence is already noticeable.
“Our beaches are slowly becoming plasticized,” said Sherri Mason, an associate professor of chemistry at Fredonia. “People don’t realize how many actual particles are under their feet. They’re small, but you can definitely see them.”
The microbeads get there through a journey that starts with a bathroom drain. After the beauty products are used over a sink or in a bathtub, the microbeads are rinsed down the drain. Because the plastic microbeads float, they flow with treated wastewater into bodies of water.
A single tube of face wash can contain more than 350,000 of the beads, according to the 5 Gyres Institute, an environmental organization that works to reduce plastics pollution.
Microbeads are not removed by wastewater treatment plants because, unlike organic sewage, they neither bind together and settle in the effluent nor are they eliminated through biological controls. Therefore, an estimated 19 tons of microbeads a year pass through and are discharged into the state’s waters.
“I don’t think people are aware that this is everywhere,” Mason said. “Any water body that has a wastewater treatment plant has this problem.”