In a complicated world it is not often that a course of action can be prescribed which is obviously beneficial. The banning of microbeads in domestic products, however, fits this rare category. By prohibiting the selling of items whose use leads to billions of tiny plastic particles being washed out into our rivers and oceans, the country would effect a reduction in marine pollution and set a good example to others.
One and a half cheers then for Andrea Leadsom, secretary of state for the environment, who announced yesterday the measures that the government planned to take against plastic pollution. This action takes the form of a “consultation to ban microbeads” in face scrubs, toothpastes and shower gels and which is supposed to culminate in legislation in under a year’s time.
Our pleasure at this move is tempered by four caveats. The first is to wonder why, if the government knows that it wants to impose a ban, does it not get on with it? Second is the observation that most companies in this limited field have already discontinued the use of microbeads, so the move is obsolete. The third is that items such as cleaning products and suncreams, which also contain microbeads, are excluded from the proposed ban. Finally, the greatest sources of plastic pollution in the oceans are not microbeads, but plastic products that break down into micro-units. Action has already been taken over plastic bags but there has been no move to limit the use of plastic bottles. The introduction of refunds on plastic bottles would be an obvious method of reducing throwaway plastic waste.
Consultation is better than nothing, but far better than either would have been immediate and effective action to reduce plastic pollution in our rivers and oceans. So perhaps just one cheer after all. If that.