Microbeads - Macro problem?

Hello pop pickers who are hopefully not spot pickers, because we all know that's bad for you, stop doing that, you'll scar yourself, and no one wants that...

We all get the odd spot from time to time, but generally as humans we go to a lot of effort to try and avoid getting them, and to get rid of them quickly when we have them.  We invest in face washes, blemish reduction "pens", nose strips that physically yank all of the dirt out of the pores around your snot holes, micellular waters, cleansers, toners, cucumber scented make-up removing wipes and so on. I'mas guilty of it as anyone else, but I've recently started to become quite interested in what's actually in some of these things we insist on smearing onto our bodies. In short, I want to have a little chat with you all about something that is probably lurking in your exfoliating cleanser somewhere on the shelf in your bathroom: microbeads.

 

This is a picture of an exfoliating cleanser I purchased recently, by B. from Superdrug.  In many ways I thought this would be a great ethical product: there's the leaping bunny on the back, it states it's suitable for vegetarians and vegans, and it's made in the UK to boot.  But it contains microbeads.

They sound pretty harmless (and kinda like tiny components of jewellery for the Borrowers), but if Beat the Microbead is to be believed, they're anything but:

• Sewage treatment facilities are not designed to filter these tiny microbeads from wastewater so some microbeads will still be present in effluent water leaving the treatment plant;
• Microbeads are found throughout the marine environment (from Lake Geneva to the North Pole);
• Microbeads will not biodegrade;
• They are ingested by various sea species;
• They can end up in the food chain;
• They attract persistent organic toxins (POPs);

So what can we do about this? In short I think the most effective thing to do, would be to stop purchasing items with microbeads in.  If enough consumers start buying (or making) alternatives which contained other exfoliating ingredients, which were biodegradable or naturally derived such as sea-salt, crushed nut shells or sand then would that not put pressure on manufacturers to review their use of these microbeads?

I'll soon be going shopping again for a more natural based facewash, so if you have any good recommendations, please let me know in the comments.  Alternatively if you have any good facial scrub recipes, then let me know, and I promise to blog about any that I try.  In the meantime, I'll be using old fashioned soap and water and to keep my face clean...