San Mateo County Chamber of Commerce Alliance reports:
AB 888 (Bloom – D) Waste Management: Plastic Microbeads
. AB 888 defines terms used in the proposed legislation, including:
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a. “Personal care product” as an article to be applied to the human body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering the appearance, and an article intended for use as a component of such an article, but excludes prescription drugs.
b. “Plastic microbead” as an intentionally added plastic particle that is five millimeters or less in all dimensions.
c. “Person” as an individual, business, or other entity.
3. Prohibits, beginning January 1, 2020, a person from selling or offering for promotional purposes a personal care product containing plastic microbeads that is used to exfoliate or cleanse in a rinse-off product. Specifies that this provision does not apply to products that contain plastic microbeads in an amount less than one part per million or products containing natural exfoliants.
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4. Establishes enforcement provisions, including civil penalties not to exceed $2,500 per day for each violation, as specified. Authorizes the Attorney General, a district attorney, a city attorney, or a city prosecutor to enforce the requirements of this bill.
5. Specifies that penalties collected be retained by the office that brought the action.
6. States legislative findings and declarations relating to the impacts of microplastics.
7. Background on plastics and microbeads:
a. Plastics: Use, Environmental Presence and Impact. Since the beginning of commercial production of plastics 80 years ago, plastic has become a common component of daily living. The annual global plastic production has risen from 1.9 million tons in the 1950s to 317 million tons in 2012. In addition, some of the properties that make plastics a versatile material also make them convenient to discard.
b. Although plastic represents a relatively small fraction of the overall waste stream in California, plastic waste is the predominate form of marine debris. Plastics are estimated to compose 60-80% of all marine debris and 90% of all floating debris. According to the California Coastal Commission, the primary source of marine debris is urban runoff. Due to the interplay of ocean currents, marine debris preferentially accumulates in certain areas throughout the ocean. The North Pacific Central Gyre is the ultimate destination for much of the marine debris originating from the California coast. A study by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation found an average of more than 300,000 plastic pieces per square mile of the Gyre and that the mass of plastic was six times greater than zooplankton floating on the water’s surface.
c. Most plastic marine debris exists as small plastic particles due to excessive UV radiation exposure and subsequent photo-degradation. Hydrophobic chemicals present in the ocean in trace amounts (e.g., from contaminated runoff and oil and chemical spills) have an affinity for, and can bind to, plastic particles and may also enter and accumulate in the food chain through the same mechanism. In 2011, the National Oceanic Atmosphere Association found that plastic debris accumulates pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) up to 100,000 to 1,000,000 times the levels found in seawater.
d. Once in the environment, the plastic pieces, or microplastics, are ingested by aquatic organisms; an estimated 250 animal species worldwide have already been negatively affected. The plastic particles can become lodged in the bloodstreams or digestive tracts of fish. Once inside a fish or other marine organism, the pollutants that were absorbed into the plastic are transferred to the tissues of the marine organism and can result in long-term harm to reproduction and other functions. Microplastics have also been found in predators that eat marine life, including birds and reptiles.
e. Development of Microbeads. Microbeads are small, typically spherical, plastic particles that commonly range in size from 50 to 500 microns (1 meter has 1 million microns). Microbeads were introduced in personal care products as a uniform, nonallergenic exfoliant. Prior to the widespread use of microbeads in the 1990s, natural exfoliants such as ground almonds, oatmeal, and sea salt were common. Today, over 100 cosmetics and personal care products contain microbeads, and according to 5 Gyres Institute, some products contain over 350,000 microbeads in one tube.
f. When used as intended, microbeads are designed to enter municipal sewer systems for disposal. Many sewer systems are unable to remove microbeads during the water treatment process, resulting in the general release of microbeads into state waters. Microbeads enter the environment with similar physical properties to the small plastic particles that result from degradation of plastic in the environment.
g. Microbeads as Environmental Contaminants. In studying plastic pollution in the Great Lakes in 2012, researchers from 5 Gyres Institute and State University of New York College at Fredonia found significant levels of microplastic particles throughout the lakes. 58% of all identified pellets were microbeads, and further evaluation linked these particles to personal care products. Of particular concern were samples found in Lake Erie in a location downstream from Detroit, Cleveland, and Erie, where concentrations of microplastics rival those found in ocean gyres (over 450,000 plastic pieces per square kilometer).
h. Earlier this year, research by the 5 Gyres Institute found microbeads in the Los Angeles River.
i. Efforts to Address Microplastics Usage. In light of the environmental concerns associated with microplastics, and the discovery of high concentrations of microbeads in various water systems, there has been mounting pressure to remove plastic microbeads from commercial products.
8. Ohio, New York, and Illinois have been moving legislation to ban plastic microbeads.
9. AB 888 is currently in Assembly Unfinished Business in Concurrence with Senate Amendments and is pending Assembly for concurrence.
Arguments in Support
10. According to the author, “Microplastic beads are sold in consumer products as abrasives and exfoliants (such as in soaps, facial scrubs, etc.).
11. In some products there are over 350,000 microbeads in one tube alone. They are directly washed down the drain and too small to be captured by water treatment facilities. Recent studies have shown microbeads to be a pervasive marine pollutant, and have been found in alarming quantities everywhere from the garbage gyres in the Pacific Ocean to the Great Lakes to the LA River. Research has also shown that these beads absorb toxins and are being ingested by marine life, posing a threat to our marine ecosystems.
12. Currently there is no law banning their use in consumer products. While some larger companies such as Unilever, Proctor & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson have pledged to phase microbeads out of their products and replace them with natural alternatives, the proposed phase out dates range all over the place and in some cases are only 50% by a certain date, etc. AB 888 would provide a hard phase out date to ensure that plastic microbeads from personal care products are no longer entering our waters.”
Arguments in Opposition
13. A coalition of eight industry trade associations writes, “Last year, similar legislation was moved out of the Assembly as a “work in progress” as all parties were very close to agreement. Unfortunately, changes made in the Senate ultimately made the bill unworkable for the industry and we had no choice but to oppose on the Senate Floor. AB 888 is equally problematic, as its scope goes beyond a ban of plastic microbeads in personal care products and would create a legal quagmire, leaving the interpretations of the definitions and what is covered up to the courts...”
14. The Calchamber argues and remains opposed to AB 888 because it will have the perverse effect of stifling innovation and slowing the transition to more environmentally friendly alternatives. Companies independently made the decision to phase out of non-biodegradable or “traditional” plastic microbeads and they stand firmly by that commitment. The CalChamber has supported bills in other states that codified that phase out. While the ban under AB 888 begins in 2020, some companies, including California companies, plan to have reformulated products on the shelf starting in 2016 with environmentally friendly alternatives. However, the “plastic microbead” definition in AB 888 will halt progress as it puts into question alternatives that are naturally derived or nature identical.
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Robert Riechel
For San Bruno Patch
Photo Credit: San Bruno Patch Archives
Source Credit: San Mateo County Chamber of Commerce Alliance
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