Microbeads circle down the drain and are too small to be filtered out by wastewater treatment plants, so they flow right into our lakes and streams. Researchers have found 17,000 bits of these tiny plastic beads per square kilometer in the Great Lakes. The fish eat them. Then people and other wildlife eat the fish.

Microbeads are too small to be filtered out by many municipal wastewater treatment plants, and can wash directly into our fresh water systems, rivers, lakes and oceans. Many treatment plants divert wastewater directly into local rivers during heavy rain, which puts micro-beads directly into the environment.

“The growing problem of microbeads accumulating in our lakes, rivers and oceans must be solved,” Meredith Brown, environmental engineer and head of Ottawa Riverkeeper, said in a news release. Meanwhile the Ontario government has tabled regulations to ban microbeads in Ontario.

“These tiny plastic particles are showing up in the guts of aquatic animals and in our beer.”

View Environmental Defence Microbeads information page
View March 24, 2015 The Globe and Mail article
View March 24, 2015 Toronto Sun article
View March 24, 2015 Global News article
View March 9, 2015 Environmental Defence article