British natural beauty brands come together to petition microbead usage

Professional beauty brands brands Neal’s Yard Remedies, Botanical Brands and Pai came together with organic brand Green People in a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron calling for a UK ban on microbeads in personal care products.

The letter, composed by Neal’s Yard Remedies deputy chair Susan Curtis, was issued yesterday (June 8) on World Oceans Day, as a parliamentary hearing took place to discuss the proposed ban.

A petition by Greenpeace and supported by the Environmental Investigation Agency and the Marine Stewardship Council among other environmental organisations, was also handed in during the hearing. It has now passed 300,000 signatories.

Commenting on the Government’s initial response to work with cosmetic companies on a voluntary phase-out of the beads, Curtis wrote: “Unfortunately, many others in our industry have been dragging their feet on this issue. Whilst some have commitments in place, these mostly do not cover all product types and many have long or unclear phase-out targets. We now feel that given the voluntary approach has proven neither comprehensive nor expeditious enough, the government should pursue a legislative route and ban microplastics being used in such products.”

As MPs discussed the issue yesterday, voluntary measures were criticised by some because of loopholes in the pledges made by some companies, such as a lack of clarity over the minimum size of microbeads they have pledged to stop using, meaning that tiny particles could still be used in formulations.

Read more about the proposed UK microbead ban here.