Guest Posting: The 5 Gyres Institute

When articles or campaigns come across my desk (Inbox, really) that I feel are important and/or related to the general feeling of this blog, I want to share.  Such is the case with this.  I received an email from the 5 Gyres Institute informing me about ACTION that is taking place in response to the plastics found in the Great Lakes!  You can read my blog post about The Great Lakes here. The following is an email from the 5 Gyres Institute:

We have some exciting news to report! In the summer of 2012 we discovered high concentrations of really small plastic beads called micro-beads in The Great Lakes. We have evidence that one of the culprits is micro-beads employed as exfoliates in facial scrubber/personal care products. We launched a corporate facing campaign with our partners Plastic Soup Foundation and Plastic Free Seas to get the manufacturers of these products to cease using these beads and return to biodegradable alternatives. Well, we've had a few MAJOR victories on this front--First, The Body Shop pledged to stop using these beads after a social media campaign we started. And yesterday we had HUGE VICTORY. Johnson & Johnson, one of our primary targets for this campaign agreed to cease using micro-beads IN ALL OF THEIR PRODUCTS which include Neutrogena and Clean & Clear. We are exceptionally pleased that J&J worked with us proactively and we applaud their announcement and thank them for doing the environmentally responsible thing.

But the work isn't finished. We've been speaking with Procter & Gamble about the same issue and so far they haven't made any move to do the right thing. We need your help! We've just launched our micro-bead campaign and action pages. The campaign pages has loads of information on the issue. 

 

Please take just ONE MINUTE to tell Procter & Gamble that they must stop using micro-beads in all of their products. Sign our petition, send a letter to P & G and share on Facebook and Twitter. The action page is easy and quick to share the campaign, but we need an army to win this, and we're asking you to be a part of the solution by making your voice heard! 

TAKE ACTION NOW!

For A Planet Free Of Plastic Pollution,

Thank You,

Stiv Wilson

Policy Director

The 5 Gyres Institute 

So - take a minute - join the campaign!  Let's get those micro-beads out of the waters!