Microbeads: as useless as they sound, worse than you’d think

Every so often a product innovation comes along that is so useless one has to wonder if it isn’t the outcome of a lost bet. The latest is microplastics in soaps. Perhaps you’ve seen the ads for new “microbeads” that get down to your pores and – if you believe the hype – scrub them ever so close with tiny petrochemicals.

There’s no real value added by the tiny particles, but there is a great cost to us because they are clogging up the vital pathways that keep aquatic ecosystems, such as the Great Lakes, healthy.

Several companies are already starting to phase them out. But it should be easy enough to regulate them out of existence since there is no economic argument to keep something that does so very little while creating numerous harms to the environment we depend on.

Of course, in lieu of regulations you can use this app to avoid products with microbeads.