The UK just did what governments across the world need to: it implemented a permanent ban on microbeads by the end of 2017.

The tiny plastics commonly found in cosmetics products are a nightmare for marine ecosystems. Just one bottle of face wash contains hundreds of thousands of microbeads destined for our oceans, where fish often mistake them for food particles.

A handful of governments are taking steps to ban microbeads. The US will phase out the plastics by the middle of 2017, and Australia has committed to ending their use by July 2018. But every day that governments wait, millions more microbeads are clogging our waterways. It’s crucial we come together to demand governments across the world ban microbeads now.

Tell governments across the world: we need a global ban on microbeads now.

But new research shows that microbeads are even more dangerous than we knew.

A team of Australian researchers have shown that pollutants that accumulate on the surface of microbeads are absorbed by the fish that ingest them. Meaning pollutants leached from microbeads may well be ending up on our dinner plates.

A microbeads ban is a no-brainer, given that many cosmetics brand already use natural, biodegradable exfoliants like salt or ground nutshells. Why should we allow the cosmetics industry to pump trillions of plastic particles that NEVER decompose into our seas when the alternative is so easy?

The microbeads bans in the UK and US haven’t come out of nowhere -- the bans come on the heels of demands from citizens like you who have spoken up against the harmful products. That’s why we need to keep raising our voices across the world to demand our governments keep our seas -- and our plates -- free from microbeads and the dangerous pollutants they leach.