Cotton buds, or Q-Tips, may seem like an innocent bathroom staple, but the Marine Conservation Society has ranked them in its top 10 most problematic beach littering products. Over the past 25 years, volunteers have collected over 150,000 of these cotton buds from Scottish beaches, prompting the government to ban the production and sale of plastic Q-Tips.
This follows Scotland’s ban of microbeads last year and falls in line with the country’s plan to ban single-use plastic food containers and balloon sticks by July 2021. Single-use plastics choke our marine environments and pollute our food systems, damaging animal and human health. When it comes to single-use plastics, every piece of plastic kept out of our ecosystems helps.
This ban of plastic cotton bud sticks is a progressive and logical choice, especially when biodegradable paper or bamboo are such feasible alternatives.
