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biodegradable non-plastic hand cleansers

Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 8:09 pm
by MartinLowe
To reduce my usage of anything with plastic microbeads to clean my hands I've used a very old "sugar soap" from my father in law, which uses sand... this coats the sink in sand that seems to persist for ages. I've used a mix of sugar and detergent which did not work too well. Finally have tried using a mix of detergent and used coffee grounds from my coffee machine which has done a very good job of cleaning of oily/greasy hands, rinses away cleanly and is fully biodegradable, so no plastics going down the sink

Re: biodegradable non-plastic hand cleansers

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 12:23 am
by irmscher
Finely ground walnut shell is good :)

Re: biodegradable non-plastic hand cleansers

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 9:24 am
by geoberni
Personally, whenever possible, I use disposable gloves. I even have a few pairs in the car travelling kit.
OK, so they are vinyl, but they will go for waste disposal, not get washed down the drains and into the seas.
Far better not to have any contact with greases and oils, which in some circumstances can have cancerous contaminants that get into your body, e.g. engine oil.

That aside, I don't use any abrasive containing soaps/cleaners.
That said, I do like your DIY idea of the coffee grounds.
Though it's worth advising that the UK manufacturing ban on microbeads in personal cleansing products came into force 10 months ago. The ban on selling them (to let old stock clear out) became effective in June.
As this is a devolved regulation, I think the other nations of the UK have got their requirements on a similar schedule.

Re: biodegradable non-plastic hand cleansers

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 2:07 pm
by GavinL
i bought traditional green swarfega recently in order to avoid the granules - but i note Toolstation ( and i imagine others) are still selling the heavy duty Swarfega, which contains "micro-polymer granules", and Deb the manufacturers still list it with "polygrains" on their website, so assuming polygrains are the same as microbeads it doesn't look like the ban, if there is one, is having much effect.

Re: biodegradable non-plastic hand cleansers

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2018 2:28 pm
by geoberni
The Environmental Protection (Microbeads) (Wales) Regulations 2018

The Environmental Protection (Microbeads) (Scotland) Regulations 2018

The Environmental Protection (Microbeads) (England) Regulations 2017
From the England Regulations, since June this year:
3.—(1) A person who, in the manufacture of any rinse-off personal care product, uses microbeads as an ingredient of that product is guilty of an offence.

(2) A person who supplies, or offers to supply, any rinse-off personal care product containing microbeads is guilty of an offence.

(3) A person guilty of an offence under paragraph (1) or (2) is liable on summary conviction to a fine.
The regulations are very much along the lines of H&S Regulations, in that the 'Regulator' can go into any premises (other than a domestic residence), take samples, issue Stop notices, and/or financial penalties, which can be up to 10% of annual turnover. I'm not sure where the cross over is between fines by the Regulator and actual criminal proceedings, I've not read it that much.

it's actually quite a long bit of legislation given the simplistic nature of it's purpose. :wink:

Re: biodegradable non-plastic hand cleansers

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2018 7:32 am
by Nickol
I found this relating to the subject

https://www.independent.co.uk/environme ... 64531.html

It is interesting when one does some armchair research, that the EU commission has been investigating this for a number of years already and commissioned a report from Amec Foster Wheeler to make recommendations already in 2016...

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemica ... 171020.pdf

Re: biodegradable non-plastic hand cleansers

Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2021 8:41 pm
by Mick Lynch
This may sound silly but I’ve had success with cheap margarine to loosen the thick oil then a wipe with old newspaper then normal soap and water. I keep the newspaper for lighting bonfires