The US Microbead-Free Waters Act bans use of plastic microbeads in rinse-off exfoliating or cleansing cosmetics, but Mango Materials’ “naturally occurring biopolymer” isn’t plastic by most standards. Regardless, it can be used in other cosmetic product categories and as an alternative to conventional plastic packaging, so long as future regulation in the US and abroad doesn’t needlessly prohibit the material’s use, the company says.
Mango Materials is working to secure a place for its biodegradable polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) in next-generation plastic applications around the globe, even if the door has partly closed on the material’s use in the US personal-care sector under the federal Microbead-Free Waters Act.
That legislation, enacted in December 2015, gives industry until July 1, 2017, to stop producing rinse-off cosmetics containing plastic microbeads...