Microbead-Free Waters Act

The Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015 is a United States law that prohibits the manufacture and sale of rinse-off cosmetics containing intentionally added plastic microbeads. These tiny plastic spheres, often used as exfoliants in products like facial scrubs and toothpaste, are too small to be filtered out by wastewater treatment plants. Consequently, they end up in rivers, lakes, and oceans, posing a threat to aquatic life and potentially entering the human food chain. The law mandated a phase-out of microbeads starting July 1, 2017.12