Title : Experts call for glitter ban as microplastics come to the party
link : Experts call for glitter ban as microplastics come to the party
Experts call for glitter ban as microplastics come to the party
At first it was just a ban on single-use plastic bags, then it was helium balloons, now it looks like scientists and environmentalists want to ban the use of glitter.
Scientists from the United Kingdom to New Zealand are now calling for a glitter ban to further address the environmental impact of plastics.
Those shiny, colourful specks of joy people use in lieu of clothing at music festivals are one of many plastic pollutants called microplastics.
A microplastic is any plastic less than five millimetres in diameter and experts say they are making their way into water systems, marine life and eventually into us.
What happens when humans ingest microplastics?
The physical impact of plastics on animals is well documented, but scientists are not yet certain what happens to the human body when we ingest microplastics.
While scientists around the world are still trying to determine how they affect our breathing and brain functions, researchers in Sweden recently found brain damage in fish that they argue was caused by microplastics, like glitter.
A professor of environmental engineering at the University of Western Australia, Anas Ghadouani, supports a ban on glitter.
"We don't yet know all the details," Professor Ghadouani said.
"But it's not a natural product that will morph into our system. It's not like nutrients, it's a chemical.
"If you breathe microplastics inside your lungs they don't decompose, they stay there."
Professor Ghadouani has been collecting wastewater and environmental water from systems around Perth to analyse the amount, type and origin of microplastics — including glitter.
What is plastic made from?
- Plastics is the name we give to a group of substances mostly made from carbon-based molecules arranged in many repeat units (n) in a long chain known as a polymer.
- There are many different types of plastics depending upon what is attached to the carbon
- Plastic shopping bags, for example, are made from a type of polymer called polyethylene (C2H4n) — where each unit in the chain is made up of two hydrogen atoms joined to one carbon atom.
- Most plastics are derived from petroleum, although some newer ones, known as bioplastics, are derived from building blocks produced by microbial fermentation or from corn syrup.
- Chemicals including colourants, foaming agents, plasticisers, antioxidants and flame retardants can be added to different types of plastics to give them specific qualities such as colour, texture, flexibility and durability.
"I have little girls and they have birthday parties, but I've mandated they only have parties every second year because it takes me two years to get rid of glitter from the last party," he said.
"I still find it in some corners of my house, so imagine what it's like in the environment."
In WA's south-west, environmentalist Carmen Kowal has been campaigning against plastics for several years.
At the helm of two organisations — one that removes litter from beaches and another that sews sustainable shopping bags for residents — Ms Kowal said glitter had just appeared on her radar.
"I've just noticed glitter in kids' bubble baths. It's in our clothes," Ms Kowal said.
"It just keeps going. It's a bit like bashing your head against the wall."
The 40-year-old recalled a recent beach clean-up in Eagle Bay where volunteers stumbled across two square metres of glitter that was impossible to pick up.
"But if it doesn't get picked up it's going to get blown into the ocean and end up in the food chain," she said.
Fun police and environmental alternatives
While Professor Ghadouani and Ms Kowal are aware of the critics out there, they say the risk of name-calling is worth protecting the environment as "some fun-policing is just essential".
"Harming the environment is harming business — that's the end of the story," Professor Ghadouani said.
"The environment is what provides for us. It's where we find our resources. It's where we make our money. So harming it unnecessarily just doesn't make sense."
He added that removing glitter and other microplastics from the market will force people to come up with alternatives.
Perth-based face painter Desiree Crossing has cottoned-on to the growing demand for environmentally sustainable products.
The 35-year-old now also sells glitter online where she says about 80 per cent of her sales are in biodegradable glitters made of compostable plant matter.
Before opening a year ago, Ms Crossing said she had not even considered the fact that glitter is a plastic.
"Someone eventually told me and I just felt awful about it," Ms Crossing said.
"So, I investigated bio glitters and got some of them. They were sparkly and they were beautiful and they did everything that the regular glitters did — just without that destruction."
While she wants to eventually offer only biodegradable glitter, until it is less expensive to produce and more colour and shape variants are available she said it is not feasible.
Professor Ghadouani agreed that many environmentally-friendly options were more expensive than mass-produced plastics, but he said he was certain that choosing locally-crafted wooden Christmas decorations over plastic, glittery baubles would eventually become more affordable.
And while governments and partying might not sound like a natural partnership, Professor Ghadouani said sweeping legislation was the final frontier in removing microplastics from the environment.
"We need leadership here where people say 'listen, this is how we're going to party," he said.
"We're going to reinvent partying."
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