Congress approved bipartisan legislation to phase out the manufacture and sale of personal care products and rinse-off cosmetics containing plastic microbeads this month. H.R. 1321, the “Microbead-Free Waters Act,” passed the House of Representatives on December 7, and the Senate approved the measure on December 18 shortly before adjourning for the year.
The bill targets microbeads, which it defines as “any solid plastic particle that is less than five millimeters in size and is intended to be used to exfoliate or cleanse the human body or any part thereof.” The legislation was spurred by concerns that microbeads in personal care products that are washed down the drain are not captured by traditional wastewater treatment technologies – threatening lasting environmental damage in waterbodies in which the particles are eventually deposited.
H.R. 1321 will ban the manufacture and sale of personal care products containing microbeads in stages. The manufacture of toothpaste and other personal care products containing plastic microbeads will be prohibited as of July 1, 2017, and the sale of these products will be banned one year later on July 1, 2018. A different deadline applies to non-prescription drug products containing microbeads, with their manufacture ending by July 1, 2018 and their sale prohibited after July 1, 2019.
With the goal of setting a consistent national microbead ban, H.R. 1321 would preempt the laws of several individual states that had earlier acted to restrict the sale of products containing the plastics.
Both chambers approved H.R. 1321 by voice vote, with no recorded opposition. President Obama is expected to sign it into law.