Beat the Microbead
Fight plastics in cosmetics!
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Description

The Beat the Microbead app is the fastest way to learn if your cosmetics and personal care products contain plastic ingredients. This app uses state-of-the-art text recognition technology. Just scan the ingredients of your products and check them for microplastics. Not only that, but you can also get to know microplastic-free brands certified by us.

How does it work?

It’s straightforward: you can scan products with four easy steps:
- Find the ingredients list on your product.
- Position the full list within your camera frame.
- Make sure the ingredients are clear to read.
- Take a picture to scan!

A traffic light rating system

- RED: Products that contain microplastics.
- ORANGE: Products that contain what we call “sceptical” microplastics. With this, we mean synthetic polymers for which there is not enough information available.
- GREEN: Products that do not contain microplastics.

Help us enrich our database!

Every time you add a product to our database, you help us build a case against microplastics. With every product information, we can create evidence and convince authorities about the extensive use of plastic ingredients. A bit of extra effort on your side makes you a part of the fight against microplastics in cosmetics and care products. So, go ahead, scan the barcode of your product and help us get some more information!

By adding the products to our database, you can also discover our certified microplastic-free brands. These brands have their entire range of products free of all known microplastic ingredients.

Why is it important?

Plastic in cosmetics is a global problem! Microplastics are hardly visible ingredients that pollute our planet & may pose health risks. These microplastics, hardly visible to the naked eye, flow straight from the bathroom drain into the sewer system. Microplastics are not biodegradable, and once they enter the (marine) environment, they are almost impossible to remove.

Sea animals absorb or eat microplastics; these particles are passed along the marine food chain. Since humans are ultimately at the top of this food chain, it is likely that we also ingest microplastics.

Using body washes or cosmetics that contain microplastics can put the ocean, ourselves, and our children at risk! With this app, you can get aware of this issue and make environmentally friendly choices.

Who is behind this app?

The collaborators behind this app include the following partners:

Plastic Soup Foundation: NGO based in Amsterdam, initiators of the worldwide campaign “Beat the Microbead”. Their mission: No plastic in our water or our bodies!

PINCH: a renowned mobile development agency from Amsterdam that is proud of their work for the Plastic Soup Foundation.
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User Rating

4.61 out of 5

23 ratings in United States

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Ratings History

Reviews

Under developed potential.

L+R on

Having used this app for scanning product over a few years now I’ve found it really hasn’t progressed. Instead of just live scanning or library pic scanning which means users collecting pics or screenshots they don’t need the app should allow for cut and paste text abilities from a list of ingredients. This text feature should also be included in the webpage. I’ve scanned and submitted many products to the app for inclusion to the database but, they never really end up there! The database search feature is also very poor and inaccurate or simply doesn’t work. It feels at times like the app is pushing to towards ‘green’ or microplastic free brands only and not the info the user seeks regarding a product of interest.

Privacy

Lmc SF on

Developer hasn’t submitted its privacy policy to apple for review of how it uses information. Developer also has a cookie banner in place that doesn’t allow me to opt out of certain cookies.

It starts with policy...

8limblife on

this is a great app and i support anyone who wants to reduce the microplastics and nanoplastics polluting our earth. in the US microbeads were banned and no longer allowed to be in cosmetics since 2019. elsewhere, thank you for not supporting these plastic products. also, check out your government's policies and see where laws stand or not. get involved by educating your polititians and lawmakers. support organizations such as PLASTIC SOUP FOUNDATION. this is a global health problem. it is an everyone of us concern. microplastics and nanoplastics are not just in healthcare products, they are in our food, water and yes...in the air we breathe. THANK YOU FOR READING.

Really gets you interested into what you use

cavylove on

I like this app that informs people about micro plastics and the overall harm. However I wish that when I scan the product and it comes up with the micro plastics that are in the product that it says a detailed description of why it is bad. Like a hyper link on the name or something because I find myself just googling them all after seeing it and it would be more informative and helpful if you used reliable sources on the names that appear. But I overall enjoy bringing light to the problem of micro plastics.

Great scan recognition of my products

Margaretannem8s on

I was feeling iffy about what’s in my products and going on my body. I was reading an older National Geographic article about micro plastics and they mentioned this app. I tested it in my son’s bath bubble foam by taking a pic; it recognized and verified the ingredients as safe. Since it wasn’t in the database I added the product name and category. I feel like this is a great concept they worked hard on and we should all do our part to use it to start cutting back on products that contribute to the microplastic problem. We should all try to scan and update products into the database. There’s millions of products out there, so it’s understandable we won’t see them all here preloaded, but at least it can read our labels with the scan feature. Let’s do this!!

GREAT APP!

SebastianDragon on

I created a website called the AAEPS 5 years ago. I learned about micro beads and the harm they cause to they environment. I got this app right away and now I use it on a regular basis. BEAT THE BEAD!

Not Ready for Primetime

CD Wyte on

I wish it worked. First, it instantly locks onto anything with one or more vertical lines, a corner of of the bar code or a border line and tells you the product is not recognized. Took six tries to get the whole bar code pictured. It reported not recognized on products that have microbeads. Never recognized anything even with a sharp, complete image taken.

Needs work

Simon Bykov on

The app is a great idea; that is if it actually worked. Was so excited downloading the app, but after scanning things at my home, mostly Bath & Body Works and Aveeno and Colgate and Clinique, all I kept getting was message "this product is still unknown"...deleting the app

Can't start the app at all

Yun Kwan on

As suggested by title.

Wish the database was active

Empresse Rassie on

Didn't know one product I scanned. Even very common things such as toothpaste

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App Info

Publisher
Stichting Plastic Soup Foundation
Languages
English
Recent version
3.1.1 (3 months ago )
Released on
Nov 3, 2012 (11 years ago )
Last updated
1 week ago