Did you know that regular glitter is made up of tiny little bits of microplastic and will take hundreds of years to breakdown?
Until a few years ago, the thought had never even crossed my mind. I don't know what I thought glitter was made of, but I certainly didn't worry about how much damage it was doing to the environment.
So what's the problem with glitter? Well, glitter is essentially a microplastic meaning that it's made up of tiny little plastic fragments that subsequently end up in our oceans. Since the pieces are so small, they are often mistaken for food by the animals that live there and can end up in the food chain. So if you're someone who consumes seafood then there's a good chance you're ingesting plastic too. A University in Belgium calculated that people eat up to 11,000 plastic fragments in their seafood each year.
In fact things have got so bad that some scientists have even been calling on a ban on glitter.
However, there are some plastic free solutions for those of us who still want to enjoy glitter. Since it's festival season, I've been looking for a zero waste alternative so I can cover my face in glitter when I head to a festival in a couple of weeks (FYI - it's a rock festival, but it's the only one I'm going to so I will be wearing my pink glitter on my face whether anyone likes it or not).
Eco Glitter is a sustainable sourced compostable glitter that is also cruelty free and vegan friendly. There are so many colours and mixes to pick from and you can also buy a tin of aloe vera gel to help you apply it. It comes packaged in a cardboard box and wrapped in newspaper, so the packaging is zero waste too.
If you're looking for glitter then I couldn't recommend it enough. Remember "do what is right, not what is easy".
