Page 30 - HPIC E-Magazine (January-2021)

Cover Story

cornmeal, ground pumice, silica and ternatives to microbeads, such as
walnut shells. different minerals like silica, pumice
and salt; various plastic formulations;
Natural materials as well as plant and animal-derived
Natural materials that are now products such as oats, almond shells
on offer as alternatives to synthetic and pearls. For each alternative, the
microbeads include cocoa beans, researchers took the environmental
ground almonds, ground apricot pits, effect of their life cycle into account
sea salt, ground pumice, oatmeal etc. – from extraction and production, to
final use and disposal.
* Sea Salt: Due to its abrasive nature,
salt is a great natural exfoliant, paper making industry as a renew- For every stage, they assessed
able to remove impurities from the able source of this raw material. various factors that influence envi-
skin without any added synthetic ronmental and human health, for
chemicals. Sea salt can be used in In Germany, the Fraunhofer Insti- example, the use of scarce resources,
exfoliating scrubs or as an ingredi- tute for Microstructure of Materials toxicity and ozone depletion.
ent in all-natural artisan soaps. and Systems (IMWS), has developed
* Activated charcoal: a rising star in biodegradable cellulose particles from They identified that two main fac-
the skincare world, activated char- beech wood, oats, wheat and maize tors affect the environmental creden-
coal (activated carbon) is extreme- that meet the requirements for abra- tials of the materials: the amount of
ly gentle on skin, while remaining siveness and cleaning performance in energy-intensive processing they in-
effective as an exfoliant. It can also dental and skincare products. Specifi- volve (which leads to the production
be used in scrubs, soaps, and other cally, alternatives for body peelings of greenhouse gases) and, in the case
high-quality products. and toothpastes were tested. The of plant-based materials, the amount
* Sugar: Sugar is used similarly to particular challenge was to design of land and water they need.
sea salt as it relies on its texture, the cellulose particles in such a way
shape, and size to exfoliate. that their size, shape, hardness and Their analysis revealed that al-
surface structure lead to the desired mond shells, usually regarded as a
While all three of these ingredi- product properties. preferred ‘natural’ alternative, need
ents are powerful alone, they can be a lot of land and water to grow and
packaged together in a charcoal salt & The research team was able to represent a poor environmental alter-
sugar scrub, to deliver incredible scientifically confirm that cellulose native when they are grown in water-
results! particles have comparable effects in scarce regions. Although citric acid
cosmetic products as a substitute needs considerably less land and
Cellulose-based alternatives for PE. They are also biodegradable water, it involves heavy processing,
Start-up company, Naturbeads, in water and can be produced at low thus necessitating a lot of energy for
based at the University of Bath (UK), cost. The cellulose particles can also production.
has developed biodegradable micro- be used as a filler in aluminium-free
beads made from cellulose. They are deodorants, and developed for deco- Silica was found to be the best-
prepared from a solution of cellulose, rative cosmetics such as mascaras, performing alternative, as it is natu-
by forcing it through tiny holes in a powders or lipsticks. rally occurring, chemically inactive
tubular membrane, creating spheri- and non-toxic, which makes it easy
cal droplets that are washed away Silica – an abundant mineral to source and process and unlikely to
from the membrane using vegetable A team of researchers from Imperial result in long-term negative impacts.
oil. The beads are then collected, set College London evaluated 29 alter-
and separated from the oil before use. natives to microbeads for their effect However, the team also note that
The physical properties of the beads on the environment. They discovered
(for example, making the beads harder) that silica, an abundant mineral that
can be tweaked by changing the occurs naturally, was the ideal alter-
structure of the cellulose. native and performs better compared
to plastic microbeads over all the cate-
The researchers anticipate they gories.
could use cellulose from a range of
waste sources, including from the The researchers assessed 29 al-
30 Home, Personal & Institutional Care India January 2021