Plant Fibres Could Replace Harmful Plastics in Cosmetics

Waste plant fibres from agriculture and paper manufacturing could replace harmful plastic microbeads in a wide range of products from make-up to house paint, scientists claim. Tiny plastic beads are widely used to roughen products such as toothpaste and face scrubs, causing significant damage to the environment because they can take hundreds of years to breakdown.

Cellulose Now, scientists have hit upon a way of turning cellulose – the tough fibres found in trees and green plants – into biodegrable microbeads that they say provide an effective alternative to the existing plastic ones. Although microbeads are gradually being phased out around the world, the alternative material could accelerate the process – while helping manufactuerers to retain the quality of the products that use them.

“Microbeads were put in for a reason and if we can make renewable versions of them then we can keep using them in the long run,” said Dr Janet Scott, of the University of Bath. Having established that workable sustainable microbeads can be produced in a small-scale laboratory setting, her team is working with a large consumer goods company to bring the innovation to market.

She is hopeful that her cellulose microbeads could start appearing in products within five years. Microbeads are used across in a wide range of toiletries and household products. A single shower involving soap and a bit of scrubbing can release as many as 100,000 of them down through the sink and into the ocean – while the US is estimated to flush 8 trillion a day into its water system. Apart from adding to the mountain of physical waste already entering our rivers and oceans, microbeads pose a health risk. They are highly absorbent, making them magnets for pesticides and other chemicals which leach out of the beads as they pass along the waterways or find their way into any fish or animals that ingest them. Once they are in the food chain, they can potentially even find their way into the fish and meat on our plates.