Products affected by the ban on microbeads

Microbeads have recently been in the news as a ban on the sale of products containing them has come into force as part of the Government’s drive to prevent harmful pieces of plastic entering the marine environment.

Just one shower alone is thought to send 100,000 microbeads (the tiny pieces of plastic often added to products such as face scrubs, soaps, toothpaste and shower gels) down the drain and into the ocean, causing serious harm to marine life.

We have a few suppliers in place whose products have previously contained microbeads, listed below with their respective status:

  • Deb – final formulations changed last October, no issues with existing stocks
  • Cleenol – only 1 product contained the beads but formulations changed at the start of this year
  • Northwood Hygiene (CONN01) - formula has never contained microbeads
  • SCA Hygiene – the soap has never contained microbeads
  • Comma - formulation changed early in 2017
  • Espuma - Polybeads phased out since early 2018
  • Wynns - formula has never contained micro beads

Espuma changed the formulas in January this year but have inadvertently forgotten to change the label so the product is fine, but the label suggests otherwise. To avoid any confusion, FPS have suspended them from sale until the new labels comes through.

The products affected are:

  • 0703-05 - LEMON HAND CLEANER 5L          
  • 0703-10 - LEMON HAND CLEANER 10L        
  • 0703-15 - LEMON HAND CLEANER 15KG