Major beauty retailers Mecca and Sephora are among eight businesses ordered to pull products containing plastic microbeads from their shelves. <\/p>\n
The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has issued stop notices covering 12 products, including scalp scrubs, body exfoliators, face scrubs and heavy duty hand soaps. <\/p>\n
The products were found to contain plastic microbeads, which have been banned in rinse-off personal care products since November 2022. <\/p>\n
NSW EPA director of compliance and investigations Claire Miles said most businesses had stopped using the harmful plastics, but it was disappointing some products were still turning up on shelves almost four years after the ban. <\/p>\n
\u201cPlastic microbeads might be tiny, but they can cause lasting damage once they enter our waterways,\u201d Ms Miles said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese particles are so small they often aren\u2019t screened out by wastewater treatment systems, don\u2019t break down and can end up absorbing pollutants and entering the food chain.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost businesses have done the right thing and stopped using this harmful plastic material, but four years on it\u2019s disappointing we\u2019re still finding stock that\u2019s not compliant.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said Mecca and Sephora were among the retailers being ordered to remove the products, with the EPA warning businesses have a responsibility to understand what\u2019s in the products they sell. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith their size and reach, we expect robust checks so prohibited items don\u2019t end up in consumers\u2019 hands,\u201d Ms Miles said. <\/p>\n
She also asked the community to help identify any products containing the microbeads. <\/p>\n
\u201cCheck the packaging for ingredients including cellulose acetate, polythene and polylactic acid, and report any products of concern to the EPA,\u201d Ms Miles said. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur officers will continue inspecting what\u2019s on the market and won\u2019t hesitate to take action where breaches are found.\u201d<\/p>\n
Businesses that fail to comply with a stop notice can face maximum penalties of $550,000, plus $55,000 for every day the offence continues. <\/p>\n
The list of products being pulled from shelves: Arkive The Crown Scalp Scrub 180ml and 60ml, Drunk Elephant T.L.C. Happi Scalp Scrub 180ml, Mutha The Nudist Exfoliating Body Bar, Tula Skincare Take Care + Polish 240ml, Exfoliating Body Granita Scrub 250ml, QV Face Exfoliating Polish 125g, Ella Bache Refining Exfoliating Gel 75ml, Frase Skin Grub Scrub 100ml, Santa Maria Novella Idralia Exfoliating Cream 100ml, Chemron Rub Clean Gel with Grit 1kg and Chemron My T Hands Lemon Industrial Hand Cleaner 1L. <\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for Ego Pharmaceuticals told this masthead the company had ceased production and sale of QV Face Exfoliating Polish a while ago. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe product is not stocked by retailers Sephora, Mecca or ASOS referenced in the release,\u201d the spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEgo had previously confirmed to NSW EPA that it would not supply any rinse-off personal care products containing plastic microbeads. While Ego has stopped supplying the product nationally, remaining stock may still be present on retail shelves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Major beauty retailers Mecca and Sephora are among eight businesses ordered to pull products containing plastic microbeads from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":910472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[72756,478480,478491,137160,408511,478514,381257,389614,478506,386130,25908,478513,478471,478482,478487,64,63,478520,66478,5612,478523,478478,478503,478475,478519,22710,30164,478493,34281,478507,478467,478473,75,21827,380864,478515,478505,260185,478474,478485,56960,478495,17860,303390,302942,478488,478509,416208,478470,478483,478500,478481,478496,478492,187436,478518,40300,478476,478502,478497,478463,359108,478524,478522,6042,478517,478468,323221,478479,478469,478521,478490,478466,478494,128,391502,478516,5473,478484,390357,380572,44731,478501,478508,478486,450119,478465,194434,377435,478464,478472,388095,478512,380402,407646,379649,478499,400663,391583,478489,478504,478498,478511,397700,478477,478510],"class_list":["post-910471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-72756","tag-12-beauty-products","tag-12-products","tag-137160","tag-408511","tag-a-national-ban","tag-a-responsibility","tag-a-spokeswoman","tag-a-stop-notice","tag-a-while","tag-action","tag-almost-four-years","tag-any-products","tag-any-rinse-off-personal-care-products","tag-arkive","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-body-exfoliators","tag-breaches","tag-businesses","tag-cellulose-acetate","tag-chemron-my-t-hands-lemon-industrial-hand-cleaner-1l","tag-chemron-rub-clean-gel","tag-claire-miles","tag-compliance-and-investigations","tag-concern","tag-consumers","tag-drunk-elephant-t-l-c-happi-scalp-scrub-180ml","tag-ego","tag-ego-pharmaceuticals","tag-eight-businesses","tag-ella-bache-refining-exfoliating-gel-75ml","tag-environment","tag-epa","tag-every-day","tag-exfoliating-body-granita-scrub-250ml","tag-face-scrubs","tag-four-years","tag-frase-skin-grub-scrub-100ml","tag-grit-1kg","tag-hands","tag-heavy-duty-hand-soaps","tag-ingredients","tag-items","tag-lasting-damage","tag-major-beauty-retailers","tag-maximum-penalties","tag-mecca-and-sephora","tag-mecca-or-asos","tag-microbead-products","tag-most-businesses","tag-ms-miles","tag-mutha-the-nudist-exfoliating-body-bar","tag-nearly-four-years","tag-newswire-news","tag-november-2022","tag-nsw-epa","tag-nsw-epa-director","tag-our-officers","tag-our-waterways","tag-plastic-microbeads","tag-pollutants","tag-polythene-and-polylactic-acid","tag-production-and-sale","tag-products","tag-qv-face-exfoliating-polish","tag-qv-face-exfoliating-polish-125g","tag-remaining-stock","tag-retail-shelves","tag-retailers-sephora","tag-rinse-off-personal-care-products","tag-robust-checks","tag-santa-maria-novella-idralia-exfoliating-cream-100ml","tag-scalp-scrubs","tag-science","tag-shelves","tag-some-products","tag-stock","tag-stop-notices","tag-the-ban","tag-the-community","tag-the-company","tag-the-crown-scalp-scrub-180ml-and-60ml","tag-the-epa","tag-the-epa-warning-businesses","tag-the-food-chain","tag-the-harmful-plastics","tag-the-list","tag-the-market","tag-the-microbeads","tag-the-nsw-environment-protection-authority","tag-the-offence","tag-the-packaging","tag-the-product","tag-the-products","tag-the-release","tag-the-retailers","tag-the-right-thing","tag-the-spokeswoman","tag-their-size-and-reach","tag-these-outlawed-ingredients","tag-these-particles","tag-this-harmful-plastic-material","tag-this-masthead","tag-tula-skincare-take-care-polish-240ml","tag-wastewater-treatment-systems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/910472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}