The chief executive of Spar Austria, Gerhard Drexel, has called for Austria to follow the UK and Sweden in introducing a ban on microplastics in the production of cosmetics.
Spar Austria's range of own-brand cosmetics products, including the brands Beauty Kiss, Sun Kiss and S-Budget do not use microplastics.
However, recent estimates from the German Umweltbundesamtes (Federal Environmental Agency) indicate that some 5.7 million tonnes of said plastics find their way into European waters each year.
'Statutory Regulations'
"For many years, Spar has renounced the use of microplastics [...] in the cosmetics and personal care products of Spar own brands," Drexel said, adding, however, that "statutory regulations and obligations regarding the use of microplastics are currently missing."
He added that he is confident that following measures to ban microplastics from cosmetics in Sweden, the UK, the US and New Zealand, the European Union will "act more quickly" to address the issue, "or that individual member states will find their own regulations here in order to curb the advance of plastic in our food and water.
"I would therefore very much welcome an Austrian ban on microplastics in cosmetics."
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
