Put down the pore cleanser: California bill would ban products with polluting microbeads.

Your toothpaste could be slowly poisoning marine life. So could your facial scrub and other products containing tiny plastic microbeads, which act as exfoliants.

"Plastic microbeads have been introduced into personal care products over the past decade and have been found in oceans, lakes (including the Great Lakes) and rivers throughout the world," reads a statement from Californians Against Waste. "They are generally not recovered in traditional wastewater treatment plants. The tiny pieces of plastic are then dumped into oceans and fresh water sources by the trillions. They absorb environmental toxins and are consumed by fish and wildlife, polluting our food chain."

That's why CAW—along with the California Association of Sanitation Agencies, The Story of Stuff Project, 5 Gyres Institute and Clean Water Action—is co-sponsoring AB 888, a bill that would ban plastic microbeads in personal care products sold in California by 2020.

The bill passed on the Assembly floor May 22 by a vote of 59-12. It's now in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee, with a vote scheduled for next Wednesday, June 17.  

CAW and its allies pushed a similar bill last year, but it fell one vote shy of passing in the California Senate.

"Any time that a bill goes through the Legislature the first time with a new, radical concept, it's always harder," says Teresa Bui, CAW's legislative and policy analyst. "Now that people have heard the debates and arguments, i think we have a better shot this year." 

Among the bill's opponents are CalChamber, Johnson & Johnson and the California Manufacturers & Technology Association.