Glitter, we've all had some plastered over us at one point in our lives, be it a Halloween costume, festive occasion or you wanted to stick out in 'da klurb', but scientists say that the herpes of the arts and crafts world is not good for the environment and some have called for it to be banned.
Anas Ghadouani professor of environmental engineering at the University of Western Australia said of the product: "We don't yet know all the details [about glitter], But it's not a natural product that will morph into our system. It's not like nutrients, it's a chemical.”
Glitter is made up of tiny pieces of shiny plastic, known as microplastics. The problem with these microplastics is that they “can easily pass through water filtration systems and end up in the ocean and Great Lakes, posing a potential threat to marine life.” A study found that among fish caught in the United Kingdom, a third had consumed plastics. Glitter’s small size is problematic as it attracts marine life to it.
Professor Richard Thompson, the marine scientist who conducted the U.K. study, told The Independent, “I was quite concerned when somebody bought my daughters some shower gel that had glitter particles in it.”
“That stuff is going to escape down the plughole and potentially enter the environment,”
“I think all glitter should be banned, because it’s microplastic,” said Dr Trisia Farrelly, an environmental anthropologist at Massey University in New Zealand:
When people think about glitter they think of party and dress-up glitter, but glitter includes cosmetic glitters as well, the more everyday kind that people don’t think about as much.
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The overall concern is that if sea life ends up consuming microplastics, the potentially harmful plastics are in turn introduced into the human food chain.
In the UK, a ban on microbeads will come into effect next year. This will impact on the type of glitter used in ‘rinse off’ cosmetics and personal care products, but other types of glitter won’t be affected by the ban.
