Thailand bans production, import, sale of cosmetics containing plastic microbeads

On December 23, 2019, Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health announced a ban on the production, import and sale of cosmetics containing plastic microbeads, effective January 1, 2020, under the Cosmetics Act of 2015. Plastic microbeads are defined as “small solid synthetic plastic particles less than five millimeters in diameter used for scrubbing or rinsing that are insoluble in water and not biodegradable”.

As mentioned above, the ban has been in place since the beginning of 2020, but there was a 180-day moratorium on it: the government notice of the ban states that “cosmetics containing plastic microbeads that were sold before the effective date of this notice must be dealt with in accordance with the notification within 180 days from this date”.

The text of the notification is available at
http://www.ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/DATA/PDF/2562/E/312/T_0004.PDF