Skip to content

The Microplastics Ban: What Small Brands Must Know

The glitter that made your lip scrub sparkle, the polymer beads in your face wash, the rubber crumb under the school football pitch — all of it is being phased out of the EU market under a single rule. If you make or sell cosmetics, detergents, fragrances or any consumer product with intentional synthetic microparticles, this one is already affecting you.

The restriction is Regulation (EU) 2023/2055, amending the REACH list of restrictions. Here's the practical version for a small brand.

What counts as a microplastic here

The regulation defines synthetic polymer microparticles as solid, water-insoluble polymers under five millimetres in size that are intentionally added for a function. That covers glitter, microbeads, exfoliating granules, encapsulated fragrances, and the infill material in artificial sports pitches. Naturally occurring polymers, and materials that are degradable or dissolve in water under the test conditions, are outside the scope — which is why "dissolvable" and "biodegradable" alternatives have become the reformulation targets.

The phase-out calendar

The restriction arrived with staggered deadlines by use, and the ones that matter for consumer brands are:

  • Rinse-off cosmetics (scrubs, cleansers with beads) — restricted since October 2023. If your product still contains them in the EU, it's not a compliance risk, it's a market exclusion.
  • Leave-on cosmetics (foundations, lip products, shimmer lotions) — restricted from October 2027. This is the deadline most cosmetic brands are quietly reformulating toward.
  • Encapsulated fragrances in detergents and cosmetics — later phase-out dates stretching into the early 2030s.
  • Sport pitch infill — an eight-year transition from 2023, so 2031 is the practical date for that sector.

The key discipline for a small brand: know which bucket each SKU falls into, because the dates differ by use, not by product type. A rinse-off gel and a leave-on shimmer from the same brand face deadlines four years apart.

What reformulation actually looks like

The alternatives exist and the market has moved fast: mineral-based glitter (mica, synthetic fluorphlogopite), cellulose or silica beads for exfoliation, wax and polymer-free encapsulation for fragrances. Reformulation is mostly a supplier conversation — your contract manufacturer's R&D already has the options on the shelf, because their larger customers demanded them first.

The trap is on the marketing side. "Microplastic-free" is a specific, checkable claim, and swapping one ingredient for another while keeping the old label is how brands walk into the green claims rules. Document the formulation change, keep the new ingredient declarations, and only claim what the new formula supports. Buyers in the cosmetics channel increasingly ask for exactly that evidence — the US and EU comparison in our cosmetics guide shows how the documentation demands have converged.

The chemicals angle underneath

The microplastics ban is one entry in the REACH restriction list — the same legal instrument behind SVHC declarations and the PFAS work we covered in the REACH software guide. For a small brand, that's worth internalising: ingredient compliance is not a one-off project but a standing dataset. Every product has a formulation, every formulation has regulatory status, and every status changes on someone else's calendar.

The brands that handle bans gracefully keep that dataset alive per SKU — ingredients, restrictions status, supplier confirmations, claim wording — in a form that can be shown to a buyer or an authority in minutes. A live, dated declaration page per product, the Sustalium way at €10 per document, is the cheapest version of that discipline — and once your contract manufacturer is linked as a supplier, their formula and batch changes land in your notifications instead of on your reformulation queue. October 2027 looks far away until the reformulation queue at your manufacturer is nine months long. Check your leave-on products this month, not next year.

How Sustalium Helps with Microplastics Compliance

  • One ingredient record per SKU — restrictions status, supplier confirmations and claim wording on a live page.
  • Supplier-linked formulas — your contract manufacturer's formula and batch changes land in your notifications.
  • Claim-ready evidence — the documentation behind "microplastic-free" that buyers and green claims rules will check.

Know the Formula Before the Deadline Does

Keep the ingredient record linked to your manufacturer and current for every SKU. Start your declaration with a free demo and publish the version your buyers can verify.

Start Your Chemical Declarations →

Frequently Asked Questions

When were rinse-off cosmetics restricted?

October 2023. Rinse-off products with synthetic polymer microparticles have been out of the EU market since then.

When do leave-on cosmetics follow?

October 2027 — the deadline most cosmetic brands are reformulating toward now.

Is "microplastic-free" a safe claim?

Only with the evidence: a documented reformulation and supplier confirmations per product. The claim is specific and checkable, and the green claims rules apply to it.

Last updated: September 26, 2026

Global Digital Trust & Compliance

Sustalium is the digital-first platform for managing complex business certificates and sustainability declarations across global supply chains.

Environment & ESG
  • Digital Product Passport (DPP)
  • Carbon & Water Footprint
  • Circularity & Reuse (ISO 14021)
  • De-Forestation Free
Product & Food Safety
  • FSMA 204 (FDA Traceability)
  • REACH & RoHS Compliance
  • PFAS-Free & VOC Declarations
  • Prop 65 & TSCA Title VI
Social & Ethical
  • ISO 26000 Responsibility
  • Modern Slavery Statements
  • UFLPA Forced Labor Traceability
  • Ethical Labor Declarations
Governance & Trade
  • Swiss Made & Origin Claims
  • GDPR & AI Ethics (EU AI Act)
  • CE Marking & UKCA Conformity
  • Bill S-211 (Canada) Reporting
Start Free

Have questions about a specific standard?
Contact our compliance team at compliance@sustalium.com