Exfoliating plastic beads feel good—unless you live in the ocean.
By Hillary Rosner
Posted Monday, June 16, 2008, at 2:45 PM ET

A smiling model glides, mermaidlike, through a lush underwater garden. Undulating ribbons of something resembling kelp rise from the sea floor, and tiny enchanting pearl-like beads bubble up though the aquamarine water. Polish your troubles away with Olay Body Wash Plus Spa Exfoliating Ribbons, the subject of this commercial, and you too might feel as if you're floating through a luxurious Atlantis.

The trouble is, the more you exfoliate, the less Edenic that underwater realm becomes for the creatures who live there. That's because the exfoliating ingredient in Olay's body wash, and in most similar big-brand products (such as Dove Gentle Exfoliating Foaming Facial Cleanser and Clean & Clear Daily Pore Cleanser), is actually made out of plastic: tiny particles of polyethylene that scrub the dirt from your face and then wash straight down the drain and into watersheds and, eventually, oceans.

It's well-known by now that increasing amounts of plastic are clogging the planet's seas, killing millions of sea creatures every year when they swallow it, choke on it, or get tangled in it and drown. Plastic doesn't biodegrade, meaning it doesn't break down into its initial components; every piece of plastic ever made is probably still around somewhere on the planet today. But sunlight disintegrates plastic into smaller pieces of plastic. These can wind up in waterways like rivers and creeks, flowing out to sea.

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This is very troubling!

I did my research and Aveeno uses the microbeads, so I will switch to Burt's Bee's.

Thanks for the article, I have no interest in clogging the ocean with tiny plastics.

It is extremely troubling. The last week I have been reading Cradle to Cradle, which goes into great detail about hazardous materials used to construct various products we use everyday to more obscure items. Hopefully Olay will change the chemistry to their products. Even if someone mentions that there is not enough evidence to support these claims, I guess it is better to be safe and sorry. Especially when it comes to our planet.