Greenwashing

Microplastics Got Banned From Scrubs - So Where Did They Go?

The beads disappeared from your face wash in 2018. The plastic did not.

In 2015, the US passed the Microbead-Free Waters Act. By 2018, those little exfoliating spheres were gone from every scrub, cleanser, and toothpaste on the shelf. It felt like a win - and it was. But it was also the beginning of a very convenient rebranding.

What the law actually says

The Microbead-Free Waters Act banned plastic microbeads defined as: solid plastic particles, smaller than 5mm, intentionally added, in rinse-off products. That is a very specific definition. And brands found the edges of it almost immediately.

Meet the replacements

Open any bead-free exfoliating product made after 2018 and read the ingredient list. You will likely find some of these:

  • Acrylates Copolymer
  • Polyethylene (listed as an “exfoliant,” not a “microbead”)
  • Nylon-12
  • Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA)
  • Polyurethane

These are plastics. They are not banned because they do not fit the definition: some are larger than 5mm, some are in leave-on products, some are classified as film-formers rather than exfoliants. The law has a very specific hole, and the industry drives through it every day.

The leave-on loophole

The Microbead-Free Waters Act only covers rinse-off products. This is significant.

Sunscreens, foundations, moisturizers, and primers routinely contain plastic polymers used as texture agents, film-formers, and slip enhancers. These products are applied to skin and stay there until you wash them off — at which point they go down the drain exactly like the microbeads did. The law does not touch them.

Acrylates Copolymer appears in thousands of leave-on cosmetics. It is a plastic. It washes off your face at the end of the day. It goes into the water supply. It is completely legal.

What “biodegradable” actually means here

When brands replaced microbeads, many marketed their alternatives as “biodegradable exfoliants” — walnut shells, apricot kernels, sugar, salt. This was largely genuine. But biodegradable does not mean non-problematic.

Walnut shell powder, for example, has irregular jagged edges that can cause microtears in skin. Sugar dissolves before it reaches drains. Salt can disrupt freshwater ecosystems at high concentrations. The environmental calculus is genuinely complicated — which is exactly why “we removed microbeads” should be the beginning of a conversation, not the end of one.

How to spot plastic polymers on an ingredient list

You are looking for the suffix -mer, -methicone, poly-, or acrylate. Specifically:

  • Polyethylene — the original microbead material, still legal in leave-on products
  • Nylon-12, Nylon-6 — used in powders and blushes for slip and texture
  • Acrylates Copolymer / Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer — thickeners and film-formers in serums and sunscreens
  • Polymethyl Methacrylate (PMMA) — soft-focus agent in primers and foundations
  • Carbomer — a polyacrylic acid used in nearly every gel formula on the market

None of these are banned. None require disclosure beyond their INCI name buried in the ingredient list.

The ban worked — and it did not

The Microbead-Free Waters Act removed a visible, easy-to-understand plastic from rinse-off products. That was real. Microplastic load from scrubs measurably decreased after 2018.

But the underlying logic — that plastic polymers are acceptable cosmetic ingredients whose post-rinse fate is someone else’s problem — was never challenged. The beads changed shape. The assumption stayed the same.

The next time a brand tells you their formula is “bead-free,” they are telling you something true and almost entirely beside the point.

Sources

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