Industry phasing out microplastics, but PA lawmakers want a ban anyhow

 

[July 17, 2015]  By Rachel Martin | Watchdog.org
 
 PITTSBURGH — Trade groups and manufacturers are already voluntarily phasing out the production and use of microbeads, tiny plastic bits that add grit to products like facial cleaners and colorful decoration to toothpastes.

But that hasn’t stopped Pennsylvania lawmakers from rushing to join the growing list of states banning the use of microbeads. The U.S. House and Senate are also considering bans.

Map courtesy of Alliance for the Great Lakes
Map courtesy of Alliance for the Great Lakes
SPREADING REGULATION: According to the Alliance for the Great Lakes, eight states have now passed bans on microplastics, and more than a dozen are actively considering bans.
“Plastics provide many important benefits to modern life, but they don’t belong in lakes, oceans or other waterways,” the American Chemistry Council said in a March statement.

Microbeads are too small to be trapped by most sewage treatment facilities and end up in waterways. Because they’re plastic, they stick around.

“The problem isn’t just the plastics, but the fact that the plastic acts like a chemical sponge,” Dr. Sherri Mason, a professor of chemistry at SUNY Fredonia, told Watchdog.org. She conducted some of the first research on microplastics in the Great Lakes in 2012.

Mason said the microplastics absorb toxins that can leach into fish that eat them.

Worldwide, 60 trade groups in 34 countries have signed on a Declaration for Solutions on Marine Litter. Support for Illinois’ ban and similar legislation is touted in that group’s 2014 progress report.

Photo by 5 Gyres Institute
Photo by 5 Gyres Institute
MARINE MESS: Debris from the sampling Dr. Sherri Mason did in 2012 at Lake Erie. These spherical beads are “chemical sponges,” Mason says.
Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble have begun their phaseouts. Unilever says it finished the job in January.

So with business speeding ahead of legislators, what’s in it for Pennsylvania lawmakers?

“I commend the industry for being willing to address this issue in advance of a legislatively enacted ban, but I still feel it necessary for the ban to be instituted for ongoing assurance,” Sean Wiley told Watchdog.

The Erie Democrat is one of the sponsors of a possible Pennsylvania bill that would prohibit personal-care products that contain the controversial plastic. He’s joined by two Republicans, Richard Alloway (R-Franklin) and Gene Yaw (R-Bradford).

Laura Guncheon, a spokeswoman for Wiley, said she wasn’t sure when the bill would be introduced. They are still ironing out the language.

“It’s noteworthy that the political process is always behind the market,” Antony Davies, an associate professor of economics at Duquesne University, told Watchdog. “The politicians are coming after the horse has already come back, and they’re going to lock the door.

“It’s possible, as well, that it’s a matter of making political hay: Because no one’s against it, (politicians) can paint it as a bogeyman that they’re going to save you from.”

Davies says it’s doubtful the state and federal regulations are necessary.

“We tend to think that we have to rely on government for protection, when in fact companies are very careful not to do things that annoy customers,” Davies said. “Companies can be punished far more severely at the cash register than they can be at the ballot box.”