All That Glitter? It’s Not Good, Critics Say


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Sue Kinsey, the senior pollution policy officer for the Marine Conservation Society, a charity based in the United Kingdom, said she was happy to see citizens taking steps to protect the environment, but she would not encourage legislators to ban craft glitter in the United Kingdom.


“That would possibly be a little bit draconian,” she said.


British lawmakers are, however, working now to phase out something similar to glitter: microbeads, those little plastic particles that are used as exfoliants in cleansing products. And in 2015, the United States also passed a law to phase out microbeads.


But has the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which helped lawmakers shape that legislation, ever paid special attention to glitter alone?



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“Not specifically,” said Amy V. Uhrin, the chief scientist of NOAA’s Marine Debris Division, adding that news reports in recent weeks had brought the issue to her attention. “Because it is a microplastic, we would have the same concerns as we would with any other microplastic that ends up in the environment.”


Joel Baker, a marine pollution expert at the University of Washington at Tacoma, said glitter is just one of the many, many types of plastics that pollute waterways. But one thing sets it apart from other pollutants: It sticks around, conspicuously, in the most unwanted places.


“A little bit of glitter goes a long way. Weeks after a kid’s birthday party, there’s still glitter all over your car,” he said.


So maybe that’s a reason to ban the sparkly stuff.


“Could we have had a happy childhood without glitter? Yes,” said Sherri A. Mason, the geology and environmental sciences department chairwoman at the State University of New York in Fredonia, who has done extensive research on plastic pollution in freshwater.


She said that glitter, like any other plastic particles, can carry chemicals that are ingested by small creatures and then make their way up the food chain.


But consumers who want to cut down on microplastic waste don’t have to lead a dull existence, because all that glitters is not plastic. You can make sparkly stuff out of degradable materials, and some companies have started to do just that.


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Dr. Mason said that while plastic glitter is popular around the holidays, it’s not necessary. “Yes, there are going to be pains associated with reducing our use of plastic, but we have to think beyond ourselves,” she added. “This isn’t about your New Year’s celebration. It’s about humanity, and our ability to survive as a species.”


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