Exfoliant DANGER - BOYCOTT

I am currently reading Alan Weisman's book "The World Without Us" that is part anthropological study and part thought experiment. Basically, Weisman takes the admittedly inconceivable premise of "what if humans disappeared, all at once, all together, tomorrow" and runs with it. Part of what he does is explore how we got to where we are, and how things would look after we disappeared - what of our "civilization" would remain, and what would not?

So, the part that has just distressed me is this. In it, he talks about the permanency of plastic. This is not news to most who follow environmental topics. Plastic is a nasty nasty substance that doesn't go away. He also quickly debunks the myth that biodegradable plastic bags are good. Apparently, they only degrade in optimum circumstances (which does not include the ocean, where many of them end up) and if they do degrade, they still leave fibers that can be dangerous for marine animals.

But, what has me MOST distressed is the fact that many cosmetic and industrial exfoliating agents are actually made with tiny plastic pebbles to scrub things away. So, we are not talking about plastic that escapes into the ocean on accident - no, we're talking about plastic that companies are putting into the products that are SUPPOSED to go into our water sources. This is a sort of mass pollution that I've not really heard of at all to this point, and really, is just criminal. There should be an uproar about this, but I've barely found any articles on it. (One of the few is this one from Slate.) We need to spread the word somehow.

Beyond that, please please please, read the ingredients labels for any cosmetics or facial wash that you buy - anything that promises to be exfoliate. If it has polyethelene or any derivative there-of, DO NOT PURCHASE IT. I would also highly suggest a complete boycott of any companies producing products with plastic beads as exfoliants. According the to researcher quoted by Weisman, a scrub like St. Ives' Apricot Scrub containing 100% natural exfoliating substances (usually made from ground seeds or grains) is fine. But many are not. Be a conscious buyer please! And SPREAD THE WORD.