Can we make better make-up choices to help marine life?
Every month Irish Water clears approximately 2,000 blockages from the wastewater network. About 75% of blockages are caused by items such as wipes and sanitary products. Picture: iStock
This year's Think Before you Flush campaign features advice from eco-aware make-up artists who want to raise awareness around the negative impact wipes can have — not only on our skin, but also on the local environment when flushed down the toilet.
Every month Irish Water clears approximately 2,000 blockages from the wastewater network. About 75% of blockages are caused by items such as wipes and sanitary products being flushed down the toilet; some of which are ending up on our beaches and local riverways.
A simple solution is to dispose of wipes and other sanitary/beauty products in the bin and to only flush the 3 P’s — — down the toilet.
Fiona said: “Think Before You Flush is an amazing campaign to bring awareness to what we flush down the toilet. We can all help by making a small change such as having a bin in the bathroom to dispose of any of these items or using a reusable cleansing mitt instead of disposable facial pads.”
Gemma shares her make-up removal routine that she has adopted in an effort “to help the environment and save a few bob as well”.
Gemma made the switch to reusable cotton pads a year ago and says she hasn’t looked back since. She continued “these are super handy and means I’m using something that can be used time and time again. If you make these couple of changes that I have made, you don’t need to use face wipes or cotton pads. Knowledge is key here: when you know better, you do better. Make sure you think before you flush if you do use single-use wipes/cotton pads and put them in the bin because they’re not good for the loo.”
Sally Foran said: “We’re all well aware of how bad makeup wipes are for our skin, but they’re also very damaging to our environment as they can cause blockages and end up on our lovely beaches and rivers, so it’s imperative that we make the switch to reusables which are widely available now.
Finally, it’s not just our skin and our environment they negatively affect, wipes contain plastics, which break down into microplastics, which end up in our food chain so they impact our health too! Think before you flush and make that switch!”
What some of us may not know is the damage we're doing to the environment by not knowing what we can put down the toilet and what we can't.
Every day thousands of wet wipes, cotton buds, sanitary products, and other unsuitable items are flushed down toilets in Ireland instead of being put in the bin. This causes costly blockages in our homes, businesses, and wastewater systems, ultimately leading to sewer overflows in our communities and plastic pollution in rivers, on beaches, and in the ocean.
A recent study conducted in Galway, Clare, and Mayo by Scientists from Earth and Ocean Sciences and the Ryan Institute at NUIG, found that 50% of wipes labeled as ‘flushable’ were actually made of plastic and were not biodegradable.
So, if you're going to use wipes don't flush them, bin them.
Unfortunately, plastic in wet wipes doesn’t just disappear when you dispose of them — plastic’s biodegradability is low, meaning it can take hundreds, if not thousands of years to break down.
With this year's Think Before you Flush beauty campaign, we can educate ourselves on what we can do to make for a safer, healthier, and longer-lasting environment through the simple steps of cleaning our faces. As the video above says 'these little bits (we flush down the toilet) add up over time'.
This campaign invites you to join them in making small changes in your beauty behaviour like never using the toilet to dispose of makeup wipes and other sanitary products.
