Skincare Ingredients 101 Polyethylene

Hello Fabulous Internet!
You may know polyethylene as plastic micro beads that come in facial washes, toothpaste and exfoliators. The problem with polyethylene isn't that it is harmful for your skin (but if you think about it, you are rubbing bits of plastic on your skin) but it is harmful for the environment. I was on Lush Cosmetics North America YouTube channel and I watched their video 'How plastic microbeads are causing big problems'. I was shocked about the facts about these plastic beads.

This beads are 0.3mm in size, they are tiny! When you use a product that contains polyethylene, after you wash them off your face they go down the sink and end up in seas and rivers. There are over 300,000 plastic micro beads in an average size tube of a facial scrub. The problem is that they can not be recycled (because of their size) and this ends up in seas and rivers. Fish and other sea creatures think these beads are fish eggs and eat them. This could end badly for us as well as fish because some of the fish we eat could have eaten a large quantity of these micro beads and could be bad for us to eat.

Everyone can help by firstly going through their skincare range and seeing does any of the products owned contain polyethylene. If you do and don't want to use it anymore, throw it out.
To prevent you from buying products that contain micro beads, look at the ingredients or if it says 'micro beads' on the packaging, that normally means that it does contain polyethylene.  
You can also sign a petition to ban the bead

I personally have done all three things, I have even stopped using my favourite exholiater as it contains these micro beads.

Here are some links if you want some more information:
http://storyofstuff.org/plastic-microbeads-ban-the-bead/
Products that contain micro-beads

See you,
Ró