Major companies L’Oreal, Colgate, Johnson & Johnson and Unilever join forces to ban microbeads

IT’S an unusual day when major companies usually in fierce competition with one another decide to cooperate on an issue.

But that’s exactly what has happened in the US in a battle over “microbeads” — tiny bits of plastic used in personal care products such as facial scrubs and toothpaste that are flowing by the billions into the Great Lakes and other waterways in Illinois. Discovered only recently, they're showing up inside fish that are caught for human consumption, scientists say.

But instead of resisting a call to ban them, leading companies like Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Colgate, Unilever and L'Oreal have announced plans to replace microbeads with natural substances such as ground-up fruit pits, oatmeal and sea salt. Similar measures are underway in New York, California and Ohio as well as in the US Congress, in a rare compromise between groups that are often at each other's throats.

“To have that happen in one year is rare,” said Jen Walling of the Illinois Environmental Council, recalling the pessimistic response when she initially sought legislative sponsors. “I was not predicting we'd get it done at all.”

Read more @ http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/major-companies-loreal-colgate-johnson-johnson-and-unilever-join-forces-to-ban-microbeads/story-fnkgdftz-1226960273717


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