Microplastics in personal care products and cosmetics in Sri Lanka

In the Sri Lankan context, the lack of baseline studies to mitigate microplastic emissions through personal care and cosmetic products poses a huge problem. Hence this study serves as the first scientific investigation to analyze and characterize microplastics in selected personal care and cosmetic items available in the Sri Lankan markets. Fifteen brands representing five categories (face wash, facial scrubs, baby creams, shaving creams, and skin creams) of personal care and cosmetic items served as the basis for this investigation. Based on a questionnaire survey, from each category, three highly utilized brands were chosen and triplicates from each brand were used for the analysis. All samples were treated with the Fenton reagent to extract microplastics. Then through Nile red staining suspected microplastic were screened and characterized through FT-IR spectroscopy. The Nile Red analysis revealed seven brands of the fifteen to be stained with Nile Red and demonstrate luminance properties under UV light. However, FT-IR analysis proved only six brands contained actual microplastics. Low-density polyethylene and ethylene-propylene copolymer were the dominant types of microplastic. Most microplastics were irregularly shaped and white in color with sizes ranging from 150 – 600 μm. An emission estimation revealed that products FS-01 and FW-03 contain 3.36 g and 0.2 g of isolatable microplastics per product. While the present study provides scientific evidence for the availability of microplastics in products in Sri Lankan markets, it also provides a great opportunity to develop relevant policies and regulations to control them.