imnofox spoke outside a marine conservation centre about microbeads

"Hello everybody! What a campaign! This is great! But do you know what's not great? Microplastics filling our oceans, harming our ocean wildlife- and entering the foodchain. We live in a society that has little regard for it's externalities, whether they be CO2 and methane emissions, whether they be chemical runoff into our rivers, or plastic drifting into the sea. That must change!"

"I have prepared a bill that will start to tackle one source of harmful microplastics: wash off body care products. Shampoo, body wash, soaps with little 'exfoliating' plastic beads. Plastic beads that just get washed down the drain and into the sea, too small to be collected by equipment. These aren't necessary! Many soaps and shampoos work perfectly well without little pieces of plastic pollution embedded in them! But the profits remain there, it remains a marketing angle."

"Many countries have prohibited microbeads in wash off products, like New Zealand, but we are yet to do the same! When in government next term, the Greens will ban the sale and manafacture of these wash off body products with microbeads in them. Even some of the fish we eat has traces of plastic toxins these days! These microbeads also often absorb pesticides and other chemicals- a single microbead can be a million times more toxic than the water around it."

"It's time to stop polluting our oceans and our waterways with our own rubbish, because it is rubbish, discarded products we often never needed. I say enough is enough! We must start to take action on plastic waste- starting in your shower!"