Glitterati

Adrienne Matei is right in claiming that glitter (a mix of aluminium and plastics) gets everywhere (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/22/glitter-environment-microplastics-hazard). She is also right in claiming that it's 'small beer' in relation to the enormous mass of microplastics (from degraded plastics, car tyres, car brake linings, tea bags, preparation of formula feeds for babies etc, etc). Microplastics are now everywhere on the planet and coming to a food chain near you. The thing about glitter, however, that it is completely frivolous stuff. It's not even a by-product of a half-way useful activity. Clearly, we need to do something urgently about microplastics, in general but it is at least a start, that several UK supermarkets have now banned glitter from their own-brand Christmas sales. I expect that this is more an easy way to signal their 'greenness' to their customers, rather an all-out attack on microplastic pollution.