The Greater Washington area is in the heart of the Chesapeake Bay watershed – an area covering parts of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and all of D.C. proper. Living there, I see a myriad of state legislation designed to clean up and protect the Bay.
Over the past few years since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed impaired, I have seen (and even lobbied on) legislation involving phosphorus in dish soap, the contents of lawn fertilizer, plastic grocery bags bans and agricultural best practices. And as more waterways were declared impaired, similar bills were introduced in more and more states. By now, every state has probably introduced, debated and possibly passed at least one of these bills.
But this year I learned of a new issue alleged (I say alleged as I am not a scientist; I not making any comment on the seriousness of the issue or the validity of any scientific claims on either side) threat to our oceans and waterways – microbeads.
I learned about microbeads at the pre-session reception by my state delegate, David Bulova. Delegate Bulova introduced a bill banning microbeads in Virginia (VA HB1697) that died in committee earlier this year. It was one of his top legislative issues this year.
Upon further research, I found that this issue is not necessarily new – but just new to me.
As it turns out, many companies have or are in the process of phasing out microbeads from their products. Beat the Microbead (beatthemicrobead.org) has a list of companies and their microbead positions.
But just because the private sector is moving voluntarily towards a preferred solution, that doesn’t mean states won’t try to nudge them further along.
In recent sessions (those ending in 2014 and earlier), seven states (CA, IL, MI, MN, NY, OH and PA) introduced sixteen bills that mentioned the word microbead. Two of those bills passed, one in Illinois (IL SB2727) and one in Minnesota (MN HF3172). The Minnesota legislature appropriated funds to study the impact of microbeads, and the Illinois legislature deleted the language that would have banned microbeads before the bill passed.
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The interest in microbeads continued to grow in the current state legislative cycle (sessions that started in 2015 and New Jersey, whose session ends in 2015). Twenty-five states introduced 53 microbead-related bills. Four of those states have already passed bans – Colorado, Indiana, Maine and New Jersey. A few more states could add to that list.
But, will microbeads continue to be in issue in the states in 2016 and beyond? Not necessarily. Why? Will all those states and advocates simply end their efforts to ban microbeads? No, but both states and advocacy groups might take a “wait and see approach.”
Bans, even if they are in just a few states, can have a very powerful impact. Most products are made for a national market, so formulas are set to be able to sell nationally. Very few companies can make the product(s) they sell in Colorado, Indiana, Maine or New Jersey different from the product(s) they sell in Utah, Illinois, Massachusetts or Pennsylvania. That leverages those critical early state victories into what essentially turns into a national ban.
Therefore, I believe whether or not microbead legislation continues to grow depends on how well the 2015 bans work and how well the private sector shows that it can self-regulate on the issue.
If microbead use does not move significantly towards zero by late 2016, I expect another push until it does.
However, if industry leaders continue to remove microbeads from products, there is less incentive for states to legislate on the issue and less interest in advocacy groups using valuable resources lobbying on the issue. And if that happens, there is no shortage of environmental issues that can easily take microbeads’ place.
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