What Is Biodegradable Glitter & Is It A Truly Sustainable Sparkle?

Glitter is notorious in the craft world. It’s easy to get and impossible to get rid of. There’s even more truth to this when you consider how long traditional plastic glitter persists in the environment (think: hundreds of years or longer).

Biodegradable, plastic-free glitter has emerged as a solution for eco-friendly craft addicts and festival goers alike, but not all that glitters is gold for the earth.

But is biodegradable glitter really biodegradable?

Regular glitter is made with a combination of aluminum and plastic composites, usually PVC, PET, and polyester. Like sparkles, sequins, and confetti—but smaller—plastic-based glitter is an assortment of tiny particles that reflect light at different angles, producing a shimmery-looking surface.

These tiny pieces start out as large sheets of varying thicknesses. The plastic sheets are layered with a lustrous aluminum layer, then cut into rectangle, square, or hexagonal-shaped pieces just 50 to 6,250 microns in size. Because of its near ubiquitous nature but small size, these pretty particles are nothing but problematic for the planet.

Is Glitter Biodegradable?

Although made of some recyclable types of plastic, glitter itself isn’t recyclable, largely because of its small size. Worse, plastic-based glitter isn’t biodegradable. It takes hundreds (if not thousands of years) to decompose.

Don’t be fooled by its attractive sheen, regular glitter is by all definitions a microplastic (a piece of plastic between five millimeters and one micrometer in size). Because of the sheer volume of glitter that’s used in the world, there’s reason to be concerned about the impact of glitter on the natural environment.

A 2019 study looked at glitter in a range of environmental locations around the globe. The researcher found that glitter is a significant source of microplastics for soils, as well as a “stealthy source of nanoplastics”. Considered to be more dangerous than microplastics, nanoplastics can penetrate living cells.

Already being the size of a microplastic, glitter also easily makes its way into waterways. Denser than water, it sinks to end up as part of the toxic sludge found on the bottom of lakes and streams.

Not only that, but because of its pointy-shaped designs, glitter poses an additional threat to organisms—like birds and aquatic animals that may consume glitter in their diet.

Although it makes up less than 1% of all microplastics in the environment, “all that glitters is litter,” said the authors of a 2020 study published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials. The study’s authors investigated the impact of different types of PET and non-plastic glitters on freshwater habitats—where glitter is almost certain to end up.

After just 36 days, biodiversity loss and changes in ecosystem function were reported. Plant species had shorter root lengths, phytoplankton biomass decreased, and the number of invasive species of snail increased by two-fold.

But here’s the (light-catching) catch: these ecological impacts were reported for “environmentally-friendly” glitter alternatives, too.

To supposedly solve these problems, eco-friendly glitter is made of cellulose (wood pulp from trees). This can take a few different forms, and, depending on how it’s made, doesn’t necessarily make it a safe glitter for the natural environment.

All types of glitter (yes, both those made with PET and cellulose) reduced the amount of chlorophyll in the water column, contributed to shorter root lengths of plants, and attracted hungry snails known to eat it.

TL;DR: plastic-free glitter can be just as bad for lakes and rivers—but let’s look a little deeper at what type of glitter is “biodegradable”.

Modified Regenerated Cellulose (MRC) Glitter

Used as a base, regenerated, or MRC, cellulose is sourced from eucalyptus trees (biodegradable). It’s then coated with a mineral pigment (mica) or aluminum for reflectivity and often topped with thin layers of plastics, like styrene acrylate (NOT biodegradable).

Cellulose Acetate (CA) Glitter

Cellulose acetate is also largely derived from wood pulp. BUT the semi-synthetic polymer—also found in cigarette butts—has degradation rates that vary based on how it was acetylated and the environmental conditions it ends up in (read: CA glitter might not be fully biodegradable in soil, compost, or marine environments).

Probably not a great choice for glitter that will be going around the eyes, cellulose acetate is also known to cause skin and eye irritation.

Cellophane Glitter

Cellophane (aka polymeric cellulose film), is the film form of regenerative cellulose. As with MRC, the production of cellophane requires toxic carbon disulfide and generates hazardous byproducts (H₂S and CS₂). Cellophane can reach up to 96% biodegradability after 180 days, nut because of its chemical structure, cellophane can’t be certified as biodegradable.

Compostable Glitter

Compostable glitter can break down in the right environment (an industrial composting facility). Unfortunately, it’s typically only the glitter core that’s certified to do so. Then there’s the practicality of that actually happening.

Glitoris says it best: “Say you get home at a quarter past rave, dive into bed, and forget to shower until 24 hours later… all those party pieces will continue to par-tay.”

It’s extremely unlikely that you’ll wake up, collect all the eco-friendly body glitter you’ve adorned yourself with, then send it to be composted. Instead, it will wash off in the shower and infiltrate water and soil (where it won’t biodegrade).

Mica & Synthetic Mica

Mica powder is a common mineral pigment used in makeup, and synthetic mica stepped in when the world became aware of the use of child labor in mica mining.

Although it occurs in nature, mica can contain trace amounts of heavy metals, bioaccumulate in the environment. Studies found that mica-based eco-friendly glitter makeup significantly altered the sediment content in freshwater habitats.

PLA Glitter

PLA, or polylactic acid, is a bioplastic often used as an alternative to polyethylene and polypropylene and is found in biodegradable trash bags. It’s derived from fermented plant starch (sugarcane, corn, cassava, sugar beets) but will only biodegrade in thermophilic anaerobic (super-hot, oxygen-free) environments or industrial composting conditions.

There was one big critic of the above-mentioned study: Bioglitter™. They claimed that the dose of glitter used in the freshwater environments was 1,000 times higher than could reasonably be expected. Bioglitter™ also pointed out that the “biodegradable” glitter used in the study was unknown, and may in fact not be so biodegradable.

Many brands make mention of plant-based, biodegradable, or compostable cores (here’s looking at you, Ecoglitter)—only to neglect the fact that the glitter is coated in plastics. Or they don’t provide biodegradability details at all (ahem, Hemway sustainable glitter).

But Bioglitter™ stands out from the rest because their two options are proven to be biodegradable in freshwater.

• The Bioglitter™ PURE range doesn’t contain a reflective aluminum layer and is free of FDA lake pigments. It’s also 100% plastic-free.
• The Bioglitter™ SPARKLE and HOLO ranges use an incredibly thin layer of aluminum (2,000x smaller than a human hair), which is exempt from biodegradability. They’re 92% free of plastic.

These Bioglitter™ products are manufactured with sustainably and ethically sourced natural materials (regenerated cellulose) and both the core and coating bear TÜV Austria OK 11 as biodegradable within one month in freshwater. They’re also ISO14851 and ISO14852 certified, which are are products of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and their 2022 microplastics legislation. Essentially, this means that Bioglitter™ biodegrades enough to not be considered a microplastic.

While it’s not certified as such, microbial activity in other environments can also support the biodegradability of Bioglitter™. They claim that the glitter will become carbon dioxide, water, and biomass in rivers, lakes, wastewater, and farmers’ fields—depending on heat, moisture, and the concentration of microbes.

Getting rave reviews from awards agencies, cosmetics brands, and people around the world, this #GuiltFreeGlitter is available through certified resellers:

• Today Glitter (USA)
• Moonshatter (Canada)
• Eco Glitter Fun (UK)
• Glitoris (Australia)

There is a recent innovation in that looks more promising still. Realizing that the European cosmetics industry alone uses 5,500 tons of glitter microplastics annually, Cambridge University researchers have been working on non-plastic glitter alternatives.

There’s a phenomenon called “structural color” that gives peacock feathers and butterfly wings their stunning iridescence. Using films of self-assembled cellulose nanocrystals (instead of aluminum), scientists have been working to replicate the phenomenon.

Finding large-scale fabrication success in 2022, the only thing this biodegradable glitter is made with is cellulose which comes from the cell walls of plants, fruits, and vegetables. It could even be made with byproducts of the food industry—coffee bean skins, mango peels, or banana peels. The use of “structural coloration” means it’s free of mineral-based pigments titanium dioxide and mica, and ,anufacturing the glitter uses far less energy than regular glitter, too.

With plans afoot to start a company to sell these glitters commercially, this is one sparkly innovation to keep an eye out for.

The most sustainable option is to create your own DIY eco-friendly glitter. Here are a few consciously crafty ways to go about it:

• Sea salt + food coloring
• Sand + food coloring
• Raw sugar + food coloring
• Colored rice or oats
• Colored seeds
• Tiny shells: ethically harvested and ground up into a fine powder
• Hole-punched recycled paper
• Recycled glass glitter

You can also avoid many of the products that typically contain glitter. Steer clear of glittery garments. Avoid non-recyclable, glitter-covered greeting cards and swap glitter wrapping paper for zero waste gift wrapping.