From L'Oréal to Revlon, which brands are polluting the ocean with microbeads?

Blogpost by Taehyun Park

After discovering that 170 types of seafood contained traces of microplastics, Greenpeace East Asia decided to put 30 of the world’s biggest cosmetic and personal care brands to the test.

Microbeads might be best known to you as the coloured beads in your shower gel and facial scrubs, but more recently they’ve gained notoriety for wreaking havoc on our ecosystems and marine life.

The tiny pieces of plastic are added to everyday cosmetic products as an exfoliating agent, or for colour and texture. They’re tiny enough to travel down your plughole and right through water filtration systems and into our rivers, lakes and oceans.

A single tube of face wash can contain up to 360,000 of these tiny plastic spheres. That means that once we have finished washing our faces or brushing our teeth, we unwittingly release thousands of pieces of plastic into our environment, where they go on to ‘gently exfoliate’ the digestive tracts of seabirds and even enter the food chain.

They can also act as agents to absorb and release toxic chemicals around the sea and into the marine life that ingests them.

How do the companies stack up?

Greenpeace East Asia decided to put 30 of the world’s top companies to the test and rank them according to the strength of their commitment to getting rid of microbeads once and for all.

Check out how they rank.

While most of the brands claim to have their plastic pollution problem under control, not one of them succeeded in meeting Greenpeace’s environmental standards, meaning that they still have the potential to allow this contamination into our waterways.

Even the top scoring brands in the rank, like Beiersdorf, which has allegedly fulfilled all its commitments to its microbead ban pledge, have only taken action to remove one type of plastic-polythene- from its products, which gives a free rein to other polluting plastics.

The harmful effects of microbeads are now well known and we’re gathering more and more evidence that they’re bad news. Many of the world’s biggest brands have made pledges to rein in these toxic terrors, but they’re still not that simple for consumers to avoid.

Firstly, while some companies proudly tout the presence of ‘skin-polishing’ microbeads in their product descriptions, others contain microbeads that can be barely seen with the naked eye and only appear in the ingredients list as polyethylene, polypropylene or polystyrene.

Secondly, many brands have made promises to do the right thing and ban the beads, but each brand has its own, narrow or confusing definition of what constitutes a microbead. These definitions can vary from function of the product, role of the microbead and can even the shape of the microbead, creating loopholes that could allow the inclusion of microbeads that don’t fit into these limited definitions.

What’s the solution?

So how to get these pesky microbeads out of our products and out of our oceans? The solution is simple. Our governments need to step in and enforce a total ban on the sale and production of all solid microplastic ingredients in all personal care products.

The good news is, it’s already happening. The US announced a ban on microbeads in January of this year, while campaigns to do the same are building momentum all around the world.

In the meantime, you can vote with your wallet and choose brands that don’t add to this pointless pollution. Check out Flora and Fauna International’s Good Scrub Guide or download the Beat the Microbead app and send a clear message to manufacturers that microbeads are unwanted and unnecessary.

Taehyun Park is an Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia

*Greenpeace East Asia consulted Fauna & Flora International on expected good practice with respect to corporate commitments to ending microplastic ingredient use.

Siemens: deixe o Tapajós livre

Ativistas do Greenpeace estiveram na sede da empresa, esta manhã, para pedir que ela não se envolva na construção da hidrelétrica de São Luiz do Tapajós, na Amazônia 

 

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Ativistas de Greenpeace estão na sede da Siemens no Brasil para perguntar se a empresa ficará do lado da destruição ou da proteção da Amazônia (© Julia Moraes/Greenpeace)

Cerca de 30 ativistas do Greenpeace estiveram na sede da Siemens, em São Paulo, na manhã desta terça-feira, exibindo imagens do Rio Tapajós e de pessoas do povo indígena Munduruku. O objetivo do protesto era informar sobre os impactos da construção da hidrelétrica São Luiz do Tapajós, no coração da Amazônia, e exigir à Siemens que não se envolva com o projeto. A empresa é uma das principais fornecedoras de equipamentos para usinas hidrelétricas no mundo.
O diretor de Sustentabilidade e Relações Governamentais da empresa no Brasil, Henrique Paiva, desceu para uma conversa informal com os ativistas na frente da empresa. Ele informou que a Siemens já vem conversando sobre o assunto internamente, depois de o Greenpeace ter iniciado uma série de protestos dirigidos à empresa, em diversos países. Ele se comprometeu a endereçar as demandas aos diretores da companhia no Brasil e em sua sede, na Alemanha, e articular uma reunião formal sobre o assunto “o mais rápido possível”. “O Greenpeace, porém, não vai parar a pressão enquanto a Siemens não declarar publicamente que vai se afastar definitivamente do projeto”, afirma Thiago Almeida, da campanha de Clima e Energia do Greenpeace.
Henrique Paiva recebeu duas fotos que faziam parte do protesto, para levar ao CEO da Siemens Brasil, Paulo Ricardo Stark. Uma das imagens trazia sementes de urucum, espécie usada pelos Munduruku quando vão guerrear. A outra era um retrato de um guerreiro Munduruku. “Para este olhar te acompanhar e iluminar a decisão da Siemens”, disse Nilo D’ávila, coordenador de Campanhas do Greenpeace Brasil, ao entregar a foto para Paiva. “Não é só o aspecto energético que tem que ser levado em conta neste projeto, mas sobretudo as pessoas e a biodiversidade que serão afetadas por ele”, disse.

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Se a obra for adiante, 376 km2 de floresta serão inundados pelo reservatório e o desmatamento indireto estimado é de 2,235 km2 (© Rogério Assis/Greenpeace)

Tudo isso, porém, é absolutamente desnecessário: um relatório do Greenpeace divulgado em abril já demonstrou que uma combinação de energias verdadeiramente limpas – como solar, eólica e biomassa – pode substituir o projeto de São Luiz do Tapajós. E com impactos extremamente reduzidos.
Mais de um milhão de pessoas no mundo todo já assinaram uma petição contra a hidrelétrica de São Luiz do Tapajós. Nos últimos meses, ativistas do Greenpeace em vários países tentaram entrar em contato com a Siemens por email, pelas redes sociais e pessoalmente, nos escritórios da empresa. Em junho, após um protesto na Alemanha, o CEO global da marca, Joe Kaeser, chegou a conversar rapidamente com representantes do Greenpeace. A companhia, porém, ainda não assumiu um compromisso claro e público de que vai se manter distante do empreendimento planejado para o Tapajós. Nos últimos quatro dias, ativistas foram à sede da Siemens na Austrália, Áustria, Japão, Romênia, EUA e Inglaterra para reforçar a exigência.
Em abril, o Ibama suspendeu o licenciamento de São Luiz do Tapajós ao reconhecer os impactos irreversíveis que a obra causaria ao povo Munduruku. O processo, porém, não chegou ao fim: “Ainda é preciso garantir a demarcação da Terra Indígena Sawré Muybu e o cancelamento definitivo do projeto por parte do governo”, afirma Thiago Almeida, da campanha de Clima e Energia do Greenpeace Brasil. “O Greenpeace está mundialmente mobilizado contra este projeto. Não vamos descansar”.

Energia solar brilha para o povo Munduruku

Enquanto o governo quer construir uma hidrelétrica que irá inundar a terra dos Munduruku, o Greenpeace levou até ela uma forma limpa e renovável de gerar energia elétrica

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Acélio Augusta com o desenho que fez, retratando a aldeia Dace Watpu, que agora tem placas solares para gerar energia. (©Otávio Almeida/Greenpeace)

É forte e poderoso o sol que brilha na Terra Indígena Sawré Muybu, na região do rio Tapajós, Pará. Poucas horas depois da alvorada, ele já ilumina do alto a floresta amazônica, permitindo que plantas cresçam, frutos se desenvolvam e que o povo Munduruku mantenha o seu dia a dia, em harmonia com a natureza. Esse sol intenso agora também brilha na TI para gerar energia elétrica. Graças a uma parceria entre o Greenpeace e a Fundação Empowered By Light, duas aldeias Munduruku receberam placas fotovoltaicas. Os sistemas foram instalados por ativistas e voluntários do Greenpeace e estão conectados a baterias, garantindo que a energia produzida durante o dia seja aproveitada também à noite.

O povo Munduruku luta bravamente contra os planos do governo de construir a usina hidrelétrica de São Luiz do Tapajós, na região onde vivem. Se a usina sair do papel, 376 quilômetros quadrados de floresta serão alagados, em uma região de rica biodiversidade e importância para esses índios.

Portanto, a instalação das placas possibilita uma maior autonomia aos Munduruku em relação à demanda por eletricidade e é um símbolo que mostra que é possível garantir a energia que o Brasil precisa sem depender de novas hidrelétricas. “Por que o governo quer destruir a casa dos nossos povos tradicionais e nossas florestas se temos sol, vento e tecnologia o suficiente para explorar as fontes renováveis verdadeiramente sustentáveis, como a solar e a eólica?”, diz Thiago Almeida, da Campanha de Clima e Energia do Greenpeace Brasil.

Na aldeia Dace Watpu, o sistema está produzindo energia para iluminar algumas lâmpadas em áreas usadas de forma comunitária pelos indígenas. E para manter ligado o dia todo um freezer, também de uso coletivo. Até a instalação das placas, o aparelho só ficava ligado entre as 4 horas da tarde e as 10 da noite. “Quando pescamos muitos peixes e queremos comer nos dias seguintes, nós temos que salgá-los. Mas não dura muitos dias. Com o freezer ligado o tempo todo, vai ser mais fácil. E vamos ter água gelada. Estamos muito felizes”, disse Valto Datie Munduruku, cacique da aldeia.

Antes da instalação, Valto não conhecia a energia solar. Mas agora, espera que outros povos indígenas de outras aldeias também possam ser beneficiados pela fonte. “Não precisamos da barragem aqui. O governo vai ver que existe outra solução e que não carece destruir o nosso rio para ter energia no país”, afirmou.

Já na aldeia Sawré Muybu, as placas solares alimentam lâmpadas da escola e um freezer coletivo. A casa do cacique Juarez Saw Munduruku também recebeu uma placa que abastece o sistema de transmissão de rádio. Esse rádio é crucial para a comunicação com outras aldeias, acessíveis apenas de barco. 

Para Bárbara Rubim, da Campanha de Clima e Energia do Greenpeace Brasil, tanto o Governo quanto as grandes empresas também devem direcionar seus investimentos para as novas fontes renováveis. “O Brasil tem luz do sol de sobra e todo brasileiro já pode, há quatro anos, gerar sua própria energia a partir dela. O que faltam mesmo são incentivos para que essa fonte ganhe escala em todo o país”, diz.

Multiplicando o conhecimento

Durante as instalações dos sistemas fotovoltaicos nas aldeias Munduruku, o Greenpeace levou dois Multiplicadores Solares – jovens treinados pela organização para levar informação e conhecimento sobre energia solar Brasil afora. Adultos, jovens e crianças participaram de oficinas de construção de fogão solar, lanternas solares e brinquedos feitos a partir de materiais recicláveis. Leia no Tumblr Vida na Aldeia um relato sobre as oficinas dos Multiplicadores Solares.

They murdered my mother for defending the environment — help me seek justice

Blogpost by Salvador Edgardo Zuniga Cáceres

It has been four months since the murder of environmental and Indigenous rights activist Berta Cáceres, and her killers have still not been brought to justice. Instead, the violence continues – on 7 July, another activist from Berta Cáceres' organisation was abducted and killed.
Please read this powerful message from Berta's son, Salvador Edgardo Zuniga Cáceres, and take action to seek justice on Berta's behalf.

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Berta Cáceres in 2015. Photo by Goldman Environmental Prize. Photo Credit: Tim Russo
In March, my mother Berta Cáceres was murdered in her own home. Her death pains me in a way I cannot describe with words.
She was killed for defending life, for safeguarding our common goods and those of nature, which are sacred. She was killed for defending the rivers that are sources of our people’s life, ancestral strength and spirituality.
My mother became a woman of resistance, of struggle, so that our deep connection with nature is not destroyed; so that the life of our peoples – the Lenca Indigenous People of Honduras – is respected. Her killers tried to silence her with bullets, but she is a seed, a seed that is reborn in all men and women. She is a seed that will be reborn in the people that follow her path of resistance.
To achieve justice for her death, I need your help.
Please join me in asking the Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández to launch an independent investigation into my mother’s murder.
 
Berta with her four children.
Honduras is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for environmental activists – more than 100 were murdered between 2010 and 2014.
These figures make me shiver. These activists lost their lives defending what belongs to us all, and my mother was no exception. She had been threatened and persecuted many times for safeguarding our people’s territory.
Even before my mother’s murder, two of my sisters had to leave the country. But our mother did not stop fighting against the Agua Zarca mega-dam project. If built, the Agua Zarca would lead to the displacement of our people and the privatization and destruction of our territories. It has already led to the murder of those who have the determination and the clarity to understand that life is not a commodity.
But the dam builders could not stop my mother. With her people beside her, she became invincible. So murderers broke into her house and opened fire against her chest. We are outraged not only because of the bullets that murdered her, but because her killers have walked away with impunity.
Please support an independent investigation into my mother’s death.
 
Berta Cáceres in the Rio Blanco region of Honduras. Photo by Tim Russo / Goldman Environmental Prize.
Berta used to say: “Defending human rights is a crime in Honduras.”
She knew that what she put her and her loved ones at risk, but she didn’t care. Along with the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) – an organization my mother co-founded – she defended Indigenous communities and gave her life. Today, our family, the Lenca people, and thousands of Hondurans are demanding justice.
We will only succeed if we press my country’s president into accepting that the Inter American Commission on Human Rights investigates the murder. We cannot trust the Honduran justice system.
“You have the bullet … I have the word. The bullet dies when detonated, the word lives when spread.” - Berta Cáceres
Today, we must be that word. My mother gave her life defending humanity and the planet. Now it’s up to us to seek justice on her behalf.

Salvador Edgardo Zuniga Cáceres is the son of award-winning Honduran activist Berta Cáceres, who was murdered in her home in March 2016.

PF realiza ação de combate à madeira ilegal no Maranhão

Grupos criminosos retiravam madeira ilegalmente da Terra Indígena Caru, dos índios Awa-Guaja, e da Reserva Biológica (Rebio) do Gurupi. Devido a denúncia do Greenpeace, ação deve estender-se a TI Alto Turiaçu 

A Polícia Federal do Maranhão realizou hoje uma grande ação contra o crime organizado que controla a exploração ilegal de madeira em florestas e áreas protegidas do estado. A polícia estima que o grupo tenha movimentado cerca de R$ 60 milhões, por meio de fraudes aos sistemas de controle de madeira e crimes ambientais.
De acordo com a investigação, os criminosos extraíam madeira da Terra Indígena Caru, dos índios Awa-Guaja, e da Reserva Biológica (Rebio) do Gurupi. O produto, de origem ilegal, era então “esquentado”, com o uso de informações de empresas laranjas, que possuíam planos de manejo aprovados no interior do Rio Grande do Norte.
Esta manhã, mais de 300 policiais federais, com apoio de servidores do Ibama e policiais do Bope de Brasília e Rio de Janeiro, cumpriram 77 medidas judiciais, sendo 11 mandados de prisão preventiva, 10 mandados de prisão temporária e 56 mandados de busca e apreensão. Segundo informações da PF, foram bloqueados R$ 12 milhões, de pessoas físicas e jurídicas envolvidas no caso, 44 empresas tiveram suas certificações suspensas e mais de 20 serrarias ilegais foram destruídas.
O mosaico de terras indígenas e unidades de conservação em questão está localizado na região central do Maranhão, no último remanescente florestal de Amazônia que resistiu ao desmatamento no estado. O local sofre com a pressão exercida principalmente pela extração ilegal de madeira, mas também pela grilagem de terra, para conversão em pasto ou plantações.

A operação, batizada de “Hymenaea”, em referência avuma das espécies de árvore exploradas, o Jatobá, acontece próxima a Terra Indígena Alto Turiaçu, onde nas últimas semanas madeireiros  aumentaram as ameaças e voltaram entrar no território, segundo relatos de fontes locais e organizações que trabalham junto ao povo Ka’apor. Em abril do ano passado, a liderança indígena Eusébio Ka’apor foi morto no local e uma adolescente permanece desaparecida desde fevereiro.
Os Ka'apor realizam ações de monitoramento e proteção do território desde 2010. No ano passado, o Greenpeace desenvolveu um trabalho junto às lideranças Ka’apor para a adoção de novas tecnologia nestas ações, com uso de mapas mais precisos, armadilhas fotográficas e rastreadores via satélite. Desde então, o Greenpeace vem reiteradamente denunciando às autoridades brasileiras a grave situação de conflito na região.
Ações como a promovida hoje, pela Polícia Federal e IBAMA, são fundamentais no combate ao crime de extração ilegal de madeira, que promove a violência e a destruição na Amazônia maranhense. Os culpados devem ser penalizados.
No entanto, ações como essa conseguem frear e diminuir a pressão apenas localmente, enquanto o problema da madeira illegal continua no Brasil. É necessário que os governos federal e estaduais encarem o problema de frente, realizando revisão em todos os planos de manejos florestais aprovados desde 2006, nas licenças de operação das serrarias, além de implementar um sistema de controle florestal eficaz, que seja capaz de inibir as fraudes demonstradas desde 2014 nos relatórios “Chega de Madeira Ilegal”, publicados pelo Greenpeace Brasil.

'The river is our blood.' Standing with the Munduruku in the heart of the Amazon

Blogpost by Bunny McDiarmid 

There is nothing quite like flying over the Brazilian Amazon. The forest spreads out like an endless green carpet, crisscrossed by ribbons of water, and goes on for as far as the eye can see. Banks of clouds break up the vast sky. As the green of the mighty Tapajós River comes into view, I know we’ve entered the territory of the Munduruku Indigenous People – my hosts for the coming days.
Greenpeace is working alongside the Munduruku to push for formal recognition of their land and to halt the massive São Luiz do Tapajós (SLT) hydrodam planned for the Tapajós River, in the very heart of the Amazon. I have come to meet with the Munduruku chiefs and show our global support for the protection of the Tapajós and the rights of the Munduruku who have lived here for generations.
The Munduruku are the protectors of this remarkable part of the Amazon – home to rare species like the pink river dolphin and the jaguar. There appears a seamless connection between their river, their forest and them. They are a living part of each other. I asked one of the first women caciques (chiefs) of a Munduruku village about the Tapajós, and her words stuck with me: “The river is our blood. Not only mine but ours. The river wants to stay alive... The river is crying... The animals... don’t know what’s coming to kill them.”
Together with caciques from across the Munduruku territory, I had a chance to see first-hand the damage that damming the Tapajós would cause to their land. We flew over two Amazon dams, one currently under construction, and the difference between the green Amazon forest of the Munduruku territory and these places was stark. What once was jungle, now is a maze of dirt roads and an enormous construction site. Where there were rivers, now are flooded areas – grey forests, drowned and dying, leaking climate-warming methane into the atmosphere. With the construction comes serious social problems as well. The lives of the communities around these dams has been fundamentally changed, and the heart of the Amazon rainforest is made more vulnerable as another way into the forest has been constructed by the dams’ development.
This is why the Munduruku are pushing for their traditional land to be formally recognised by the Brazilian government. If the Munduruku land is officially recognised, it makes the construction of the dam illegal. But the path to formal recognition has pitfalls. A recent report published by the Brazilian Indigenous Rights Department (FUNAI) recognised this land as traditionally Munduruku, and the Environmental Agency (IBAMA) even put the SLT dam on hold in response, but nothing is final. Given the volatility in the Brazilian political system at the moment, this tentative recognition could be shelved at any time.
So the Munduruku are seizing the moment and undertaking an unofficial, community-led demarcation of their land. They are marking their land with signs to indicate it is Munduruku territory – a process normally executed by the federal government – to pressure the government to grant formal and permanent recognition of their territory and stop the dam.
While the Munduruku are working to get official recognition and the rights that come with it, the rest of us also have a role to play: making this local fight a global one. We must be vocal in our support of Munduruku land rights. They are the best guardians of this river and the forest. We must also ensure that global companies considering becoming involved in this project stay away. That means calling on multinational corporations like Siemens to confirm they will not participate in the dam project if it moves forward. Siemens, which likes to brand itself as a green company, was already involved in the controversial Belo Monte dam – the most recent destructive dam to be built in the Amazon. The dam is mired in lawsuits and corruption scandals, and so far it has failed to deliver on its energy promise.
Our best chance to protect this incredible part of the Amazon is to stand with the people who have lived in and protected it for centuries. So, hammer in hand, I will help affix signs marking this land as Munduruku territory while I am here. And after I leave this place, I will continue to call on people like Joe Kaeser, CEO of Siemens, to recognise that the Tapajós is too precious to destroy – and it is in all of our interests that it is the Munduruku, not corporations, who have the final say.
This is a story of what is right and wrong in the world. Join me in asking Siemens to distance itself from this project, and stand with the Munduruku people.

Bunny McDiarmid is the Executive Director for Greenpeace International.
This blog was originally posted by the Huffington Post.

Blog post by: Bunny McDiarmid

Bunny McDiarmid is the Executive Director of Greenpeace International.
She is an activist with more than 30 years’ experience leading national and international campaigns. She is no stranger to Greenpeace, having worked in various capacities with the organisation starting in 1984.

All blogposts by Bunny McDiarmid

Moving the mountain

Blogpost by Mirjam Kopp

The hardest part of any journey is getting started, taking that first step. It’s so much easier when you have your friends with you.
The same is true of the Detox outdoor campaign. It started when we found that some brands making our outdoor gear are also contributing to the contamination of our planet. Samples we collected from fishes and rivers to pristine mountaintops, all contained manmade PFCs. We knew as soon as the lab reports came back positive that we need to stop companies using these hazardous chemicals.
Collecting water samples, Kaçkar Mountains, Turkey
But would the brands listen to us? We were just a handful of concerned, passionate nature lovers lacking in numbers. So we searched for other nature lovers who want to keep the world free of hazardous chemicals and ensure that the gear they buy doesn't pollute their most cherished environments.
And we found you. We found you on wooded trails, dangling from cliff faces, standing on mountain tops, swimming in clear blue lakes, and packing up your tents after a night under the stars.
Detox expedition to Altai Mountains in Russia
We’ve tapped into a thriving, supportive community and it's awe-inspiring to see outdoor lovers around the world joining us. We invited you to create the campaign with us, and before long you were telling us which products you want us to test in the lab, coming up with creative ideas for activities and organising adventurous PFC-free expeditions. Thousands of you participated in actions demanding your favourite brands to go PFC-free and Detox.
Detox action in Stockholm, Sweden
Such a promising start has had its effects. You delivered early on, encouraging the UK-based brand Paramo, to make a bold move and be the first outdoor brand to Detox! This was an early victory and you kept the pressure on. We can now announce that, in just under a year of campaigning, your voice has been heard by two more brands, Vaude and Rotauf. Both have committed to clean up their production chains. Rotauf is already PFC-free and Vaude pledges to eliminate all PFCs from their products by 2018.
The momentum is building but there is more work to be done. In the past months, we tested the air in stores around the world run by the largest outdoor brands. The results will take your breath away!

Detox Action at The North Face Store in Milan, Italy
We also found out that many brands need your encouragement to completely drop PFCs from their gear. There are alternatives that keep outdoor lovers dry and warm and these brands need to know that you want them to switch now.
PFC-free Expedition in China
There are also brands that need you to get LOUD. They have not yet announced any timelines to eliminate PFCs, even though more than 200 scientists from around the world discourage their use in consumer goods due to their hazardous properties.
Some PFCs have been associated with adverse health effects in humans, including kidney and testicular cancers, while others may block the positive effects of children’s vaccinations. So we need you to step up again. Let these brands know that you’re not going away… and that you’re bringing your friends!
There are more victories ahead. Can we count on you to speak up again?
Mirjam Kopp is the Detox Outdoor Project Leader for Greenpeace Switzerland.