# Microplastics-driven reformulation Topic radar · 100 documents · 2021-01-01–2026-11-01 · updated 2026-10-31 Canonical: https://slate.greyb.com/radar/microplastics-driven-reformulation/innovations ## In one minute ### The scrub bead is a gel with beetroot pulp held inside it The fullest process description is in an Indian academic filing. Beetroot paste is mixed with 6% sodium alginate at a 2:1 ratio, dropped into a chilled 3% calcium chloride bath, washed in distilled water and dried at 60 °C for 20 minutes [1]. The calcium ions crosslink the alginate, so the skeleton of the particle is a hydrogel and the pulp supplies the abrasion, the colour and the antioxidants, including vitamin C, betalains and polyphenols [1]. 1. [IN202641018160A](/?paper=IN202641018160A&utm_source=radar&utm_medium=dashboard) ### The only on-pack microplastics statement the law requires is a warning Lip, nail and make-up products carry the longest transition of any category, and they alone get a labelling duty inside it: from 17 October 2031 such products must state on the pack that they contain microplastics to remain on the market, four years before the restriction reaches them in 2035. ### The near-term supply comes from a company that already owns the plant Eastman put Esmeri SK1N10 on the market in October 2026 for skin care and sun care, a grade added to a cellulose chemistry business it describes as more than a century old. That is a product a formulator can buy now. The venture-funded capacity is not. Bioweg starts construction in the fourth quarter of 2026 with 10,000 tonnes planned for 2028, Cellugy's €8.1 million was raised to scale a thickener, and Naturbeads was running a small-scale facility as of March 2026. ### Chilling the calcium bath sets how hard the bead is Calcium-alginate beads stiffen with more alginate and more calcium, and they stiffen again when the bath is colder. Beads gelled at 5 °C reached the highest rupture strength in a controlled study, because slow calcium diffusion gives a more even internal network. Strength also rises with alginate concentration, and drying stiffens a gel bead further as water leaves it. Read against that work, the chilled bath and the 60 °C drying step in the patent are the two settings that fix bead hardness. My inference is that both will need retuning as the solids in the pulp change from batch to batch. ### The advisory layer is circulating dates that are wrong A European compliance consultancy's own page states that the first cosmetic deadline passed in October 2025 and that rinse-off products containing microbeads should have left the EU market after 17 October 2025. Microbeads came out in 2023 and rinse-off follows in 2027. The same publisher runs another page correctly framed around the 2027 deadline, which makes the error a property of the content layer rather than a position anyone holds. ### The brand-side work has moved to the contract manufacturers The clearest account of a brand-scale reformulation in this material does not come from a brand. Hardford, a Swedish contract manufacturer, ran a project that sent more than thirty formulations through SPF and water-resistance testing, removed the microplastic polymer and kept water resistance, and is continuing to refine the sensory profile. Its interviewee says customers are asking for removal now rather than waiting for a date. ### A natural wax can take over the structurant job in a stick In lipstick and mascara, polyethylene works as a structuring wax rather than as a particle, so replacing it is a wax-for-wax problem. A natural wax sold as ABWAX Revowax matched polyethylene on thermal behaviour and on penetration curves closely enough that the finished microplastic-free stick performed comparably. The paper also shows where the work actually sat: compatibility with the oils and the colours had to be mapped before the wax could be trusted in a real formula. ### Demand is being measured in intention, not money The field's consumer research surveys 375 Indian shoppers and finds moral values, working through self-efficacy and attitude, as the strongest driver of intent to buy microplastic-free personal care. That is a market where this restriction does not bind, and it measures stated intent rather than the price anyone will pay. The buyer-side surveying measures satisfaction with the available ingredients, not budget. ## Overview ### The deadline order follows difficulty, and it inverts the economics The phase dates are arranged by how hard each category is to reformulate. Granular sports infill is the largest single source of intentional release, at up to 16,000 tonnes a year out of roughly 42,000 tonnes released from products in use, and it waits until 2031; lip, nail and make-up wait until 2035, while rinse-off personal care goes first in 2027. That puts the cheapest, highest-volume, thinnest-margin slot at the front of the queue and leaves the categories that can carry a second-function premium, sun care and leave-on, until 2029. ## What's new The period's technical output was a review and a safety assessment, and the review found the compliant capsule chemistries that matter most still short of scale. That is the useful way to read October. The reformulation's binding constraint has moved to supply: having a substitute that is both commercially available and documented. ## Research ### The thickener slot is judged on numbers the buyer already measures Carbomer is a crosslinked polyacrylic acid used at 0.1 to 0.5%, neutralised with sodium hydroxide or triethanolamine to build a clear, shear-thinning gel. A substitute has to reproduce viscosity, clarity and flow at that use level, which is a specification a formulator can write down and measure. Cellugy's EcoFLEXY Rheo is aimed at that slot. I read this as the easier commercial entry: the acceptance test is a number both sides already agree on, and the ingredient sits in the formula at a fraction of a percent, where its price barely moves the cost of the batch. ### One fermentation line feeds a scrub particle and a thickener Bioweg converts food-industry side streams into bacterial cellulose by precision fermentation and refines it into polymers that drop into existing formulas. The same material goes to market twice, as MicBeads for scrubbing and RheoWeg for rheology. The pilot plant at Quakenbrück is rated to six tonnes; the plant under construction in North Rhine-Westphalia is planned at 10,000 tonnes a year by 2028. ### The cellulose ester is sold with a size certificate and a degradation certificate The restriction's verification clause counts only particles at least 0.1 µm in any dimension, or 0.3 µm in length, because smaller ones cannot currently be identified and quantified. Eastman's colour-cosmetics grade is specified at a 10 µm average particle size, certified non-nano and made by solvent-free micronisation from wood pulp. Its skin-care grade was launched as a non-nano cellulose ester for skin and sun care, where light scattering can lift SPF and allow lower filter loading. The company states that grade is readily biodegradable under OECD 301B and therefore falls outside the definition of a synthetic polymer microparticle. ### The cellulose microspheres are described by their feedstock and their plants Naturbeads makes its particles from wood cellulose and has run a small-scale manufacturing facility, selling the same bead on smooth texture in cosmetics and on durable finish in paints. The company accounts cover the ends of the process, feedstock in and capacity out, while the shaping step in the middle appears mainly as laboratory method: cellulose acetate formed by premixed membrane emulsification and then deacetylated into cellulose beads, or cellulose dissolved in an ionic liquid and precipitated in oil at more than 90% yield in the 200 to 800 µm range. Both routes set bead shape and surface at the emulsification stage, which is the part a 10,000-tonne plant has to reproduce. ### The chitosan work stops one test short of the answer A university project made chitosan films and emulsions, compared polyol plasticisers, loaded a balm cleanser base with chitosan at several levels, and confirmed by infrared spectroscopy that the polymer was present. The write-up states that testing the cleansing power of each sample is the next step. The formulation was built and characterised, and the measurement that would say whether it cleans was not reported. ### Cleaning products need the same substitution with no premium to hide behind Diversey, part of Solenis, ran an open challenge for environmentally friendly substitutes for the polymer compounds in one of its building-care products. A cleaning company outsourcing the chemistry to a prize is the plainest sign that no supplier had a shelf-ready replacement. The constraint there is harsher than in cosmetics, because the polymer earns its place in a formula sold on cost per kilo, and there is no texture claim or SPF benefit to carry a higher ingredient price. ## Strategy ### Pharma is buying interpretation rather than substitutes Medicinal products are derogated from the ban, but the reporting duties still bind, and the sector's response is a decision framework for excipients and drug-delivery systems: working out which materials count as synthetic polymer microparticles and what has to be filed about them. None of that work is about replacing a polymer. It is about classifying one. ### Buyers have not committed to paying for the change Eastman's survey of 150 R&D professionals across Europe, Asia and the US found 52% satisfied with the ingredient options available, against 85% who see sustainability as important. That gap is the buyer's version of the problem: the interest is close to universal and the satisfaction is not. ## Areas - Compliance Management · 34 documents - Technical Substitution · 24 documents - Regulatory Restriction · 20 documents - Legal & Policy Risk · 19 documents