The federal government has banned the sale of toiletries that use microbeads in a step to remove harmful plastic from the environment.
“They’re in every lake, river, stream. They’re also on land, so they’re everywhere,” said University of Manitoba master’s student Sarah Warrack, who studies microplastics.
On Sunday, federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna tweeted that these small pieces of plastic will no longer be for sale in toiletries as of Canada Day 2018.
Our gift on #CanadaDay: we have officially taken the final step and banned the bead in Canada! Microbeads will no longer be for sale in toiletries as of today pic.twitter.com/W77RyEefOI
— Catherine McKenna (@cathmckenna) July 1, 2018
This ban prohibits the manufacture, import and sale of specific toiletries that use microbeads, which are often found in face soaps, toothpaste and beauty products.
Eva Pip, a water quality expert, said microbeads create pollution and can take hundreds of years to disintegrate,
“They keep recycling and recycling with the ecosystem and we have to find a way to deal with this,” she said.
The ban of microbeads in natural health products and non-prescriptions drugs is expected to come into effect on July 1, 2019.