Minister vows action on shower gel, electric cars and food waste

A tube of exfoliating shower gel might look harmless enough to the average punter, but it may contain microbeads — tiny, but lethal, particles of plastic.

A few handfuls of such gel can send up to 10,000 of the non-biodegradeable beads into the sea, where marine life mistake them for microplankton, eat them, think they are full and end up dying through lack of nutrition, while disturbing the sensitive and hugely important marine eco-system.

Minister for Climate Change Denis Naughten wants such products, being banned in the UK and US, to be prohibited here.