The Government is ready to ban polluting microbeads from cosmetics, Environment Minister George Eustice has told MPs.

Tonnes of microbeads, tiny pieces of plastic which are used in products such as face scrubs, are washed into the environment in the UK each year where they can be eaten or swallowed by marine life such as fish and mussels.

Recent research has shown that the plastics result in the early death of fish.

British Ministers had supported a voluntary scheme to phase out the plastics from cosmetics, but after a ban was brought in by the United States, a similar move is now favoured here, Mr Eustice told the parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee.

"I think what has happened in the US has changed the dynamics of this, and we do think it's right now for us to say, well let's progress and proceed with a ban instead," he said.

Mr Eustice, who supports Brexit but was appearing in front of the MPs in his Government role, said that while the UK was in the single market, it should push for a European Union-wide ban on microbeads in the manufacture and sale of cosmetics.

The UK could introduce its own national ban on using microbeads in products manufactured in Britain, he said, but as the EU controls trade issues the UK could not unilaterally bring in a ban on the sale of cosmetics with the plastic particles.

"Our view is it would be better to try and progress this at a European level and get other countries to do the same," he said.

Measures to ban microbeads could be included in the EU "circular economy" package which is expected to come in in 2017 and there was a strong consensus on action among countries, he said.

Quizzed on extending the ban to microbeads in other domestic products such as laundry or dishwasher detergents, or even other microplastic pollutants such as synthetic fibres from textiles, Mr Eustice said cosmetics were a good place to start.

Last week the Marine Conservation Society delivered a petition with more than 312,000 signatures to Downing Street.

The petition, presented to the Prime Minister on World Oceans Day, called for a ban on microbeads.

Found in products such as facial scrubs and toothpaste, millions of the tiny plastics are flushed unwittingly, into the world's oceans every year where they ultimately end up in the marine food chain.

Microbeads were banned by President Obama last year and the UK government has already referred to the tiny plastics as a "very serious" problem for the marine habitat.

An estimated 8 million tonnes of plastics are estimated to end up in the oceans every year, and a recent report commissioned by the UN showed that microplastics are an increasing threat to human health.

 

Source : plymouthherald.co.uk

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