And particularly worrisome are the little plastic beads that make your ex-foliating shower scrub so pretty looking. They're also made of plastic, and all of it goes down the sewer. In insane quantities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbead

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_particle_water_polluti...

Fwiw those are in the process of being phased out in the U.S. (as the Wikipedia article notes). A ban on their use in rinse-off cosmetics (shampoos, toothpaste, body washes, etc.) was passed in December 2015. But the phase-out lasts through 2019. The unusually short and readable bill is here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/1321...

Obligatory:

http://www.vice.com/video/toxic-garbage-island-1-of-3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch

Also, one can use volcanic pummic and/or ground apricot seeds to accomplish nearly the same thing without killing the ocean. I would humbly suggest these microplastics should be outlawed entirely and there should be more requirements to capture, prevent and recycle plastic and other debris from ending up in runoff, which should be only water or nontoxic organic matter.

Really? I actually thought they meant "PCBs". Learn something new every day, I guess.