Small change: earlier we mentioned that only two (Nivea & Elvive/Elseve) of the ten brands we surveyed mention ‘microplastics’ in their public sustainability plans. Unfortunately, this turns out to be only one: Nivea. We have changed this in the article below and in our report “Plastic: The Hidden Beauty Ingredient”.
New EU legislation will only address a fraction of the problem if it does not cover all types of microplastics
- The EU is threatening to adopt a hollowed-out law that applies to less than 4% of synthetic polymers used in cosmetics.
- Prominent scientists endorse Plastic Soup Foundation’s call for synthetic polymers to be examined for their harmfulness before allowing them to enter the European market.
- For the study, 7,704 cosmetic and personal care products from the ten most popular brands of the four largest cosmetics manufacturers in Europe were reviewed.
Plastic Soup Foundation will publish the report Plastic: The Hidden Beauty Ingredient on April 7. This report comes on the eve of the new EU restriction on the deliberate addition of microplastics to all kinds of products, a form of environmental pollution that is irreversible.
In addition, more and more scientists are concerned about the potential impact on human health. On March 24, scientists from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the VUmc demonstrated for the first time the presence of synthetic polymers in human blood in almost 80% of the test subjects studied.
Plastic: The Hidden Beauty Ingredient is a report of the first-ever large-scale study of the presence of microplastics in over seven thousand different cosmetic and personal care products. Of the products studied, 87% were found to contain microplastics. This includes all possible synthetic polymers, whether added in solid, liquid, semi-liquid or water-soluble form, as well as nanoplastics and biodegradable plastics.
Scientists endorse our view that too little is yet known about the degradability and toxicity of synthetic polymers for people and the environment to simply allow them unregulated access to the European market. They believe that synthetic polymers – like chemical substances – should comply with the REACH regulations before they are allowed to enter the EU market. REACH states very clearly: ‘No data, no market’.
Prominent scientists such as Dick Vethaak (Emeritus Professor of Ecotoxicology/Water Quality and Health at the VU Amsterdam, co-author of the study on plastics in blood) and Hans Peter Arp (Professor of Environmental Chemistry at NTNU in Trondheim) have signed the scientific statement included in the report.
Other scientists supporting the outcome from the report:
- Prof. Thomas Knepper
- Dr. Lisa Zimmerman
- Dr. Jane Muncke
The full report can be found here: Plastic: The Hidden Beauty Ingredient. *Redacted May 25th 2022: Change in some information on pages 7, 34 & 35. A detailed explanation is available on page 58 of the report.
Just 13% plastic-free
For the study, we focused on the ten most popular brands (L’Oréal Paris, Elvive/Elseve, Garnier, Nivea, Gillette, Oral-B, Head & Shoulders, Dove, Rexona, and Axe) from Europe’s four largest cosmetics manufacturers (L’Oreal, Beiersdorf, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever). Of the ten brands studied, 7,704 different products were in our database. And of those 7,704 products, only 13 percent were found to be free of microplastics.
Because the industry is not transparent about the use of plastic in personal care products, we relied on the data we collected with our app Beat the Microbead. With this free app, consumers worldwide have now scanned more than three million products to see if they contain microplastics and if so, which ones.
L’Oreal, Beiersdorf, Procter & Gamble and Unilever were approached by us to provide insight into their current and future plastic policies. All four have indicated that they want to do more against plastic pollution, but they focus only on microplastics in solid form. They follow the limited definition of microplastics as proposed by ECHA.
Only two (Nivea & Elvive/Elseve) of the ten brands we studied name “microplastics” in their public sustainability plans. Of the four parent companies, only Beiersdorf and Unilever have published on how to address microplastics.
Seven kilos per minute
Every minute, over seven kilos of microplastics from cosmetics and personal care products end up in the European environment, according to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). If we use the much broader definition of microplastics, we would be talking about at least a 25-fold increase. This is a Europe-wide estimate based on a calculation for Germany by the Fraunhofer Institut für Umwelt.
Pollution with microplastics is irreversible. The EU therefore takes the danger it poses to the environment and human health seriously. Therefore, new EU legislation is in the making to limit intentionally added microplastics to cosmetics, detergents and agricultural products, among others. The new rules are part of the European Green Deal, which aims to ensure that the EU is climate neutral by 2050 and has sustainable policies in the area of plastics, among others.
According to the most recent timeline provided by EU authorities, the restriction would be discussed in June with a planned adoption in late 2022.
Microplastics – a question of definition
Underlying the new European legislation is an opinion from the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), released in February 2021. With this proposal, the agency expects to achieve a 500,000 ton reduction of microplastics in the environment over the next 20 years.
Plastic Soup Foundation is pleased that the EU is far ahead of the rest of the world with this proposal. ‘But,’ says Head of Programs Jeroen Dagevos: ‘It is disappointing that the vast majority of all synthetic polymers will not be considered microplastics if ECHA’s proposal is adopted by the European Commission. This could lead to greenwashing, because products could be falsely claimed to be plastic-free.’
The reason for this is that ECHA has not included all synthetic polymers in the definition of ‘microplastics’. For example, plastic particles smaller than 0.1 micrometers are excluded from it. Moreover, all water-soluble, semi-liquid and liquid polymers are excluded, as ECHA only focuses on polymers in solid form. Also “biodegradable” polymers are not included.
Mohammed Chahim, MEP for the Dutch Labour Party: ‘All alarm bells are ringing for me, knowing that the use of microplastics has increased so much without proper research or legislation. You can feel it in your bones that we will soon be saying: if only we had had stricter legislation. Microplastics are really used in everything, without us knowing exactly what the consequences are for human health and the environment. This is precisely why restraint is called for. Better safe than sorry.
Chahim: ‘In Europe, I argue for a broader definition of microplastics in order to prevent further damage. We cannot let the business model of cosmetics brands like L’Oreal and Nivea prevail over the damage to people and the environment. Moreover, it is the citizens who then pay for the costs of the damage done, not the brands that should use alternatives to these microplastics.’
#DareToCare
Dagevos: ‘Plastic Soup Foundation is not only of the opinion that all synthetic polymers should fall under the new regulations, but also that the cosmetics industry will be given a lot of time after the introduction of the law to remove the microplastics from their products: four years for rinse-off products and six years for leave-on products.
Madhuri Prabhakar, campaigner Beat the Microbead: ‘With the slogan Dare to Care, we want to encourage policy makers to use the new EU legislation to put an end to all deliberately added microplastics once and for all. We also want to urge the cosmetics industry to guarantee the safety of the ingredients used for both the environment and public health.’
Consumers can also do their part. Prabhakar: ‘With one push on the button they can ask their favorite brand to stop using microplastics as soon as possible. In addition, we have our petition addressed to EU politicians, which has already been signed over 42,000 times.’
