EU microplastics ban set to make a growing problem worse

The EU has promised to tackle microplastic pollution. Its own scientists are warning that the situation is out of control and will be a “widespread risk within a century.”

Relentless and rapidly growing plastic production and largely uncontrolled waste are creating an immense cloud of plastic particles that are polluting all known environments: the air we breathe, the food we eat and throughout our bodies, in Arctic snow, mountain soils and the deepest oceans.

So last year, the European Chemicals Agency proposed banning all microplastics added to cosmetics, paint, detergents and nearly all other consumer and commercial products where they are used to fill, bind, coat, absorb, thicken, be abrasive or control the release of medicines or pesticides.

CONTINUE READING ON eeb.org