ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

A team of students from Indiana, US have created a hand soap using exfoliating soy beads.

And the group won first prize in a competition for their invention, which they claim will provide customers with a natural alternative to traditional soaps.

Many hand soaps contain exfoliants made from plastic microbeads. Besides soaps, these tiny pieces of plastic are added to many other everyday products such as toothpastes, facial washes and abrasive cleaners.

The beads are non-biodegradable which means many end their lives in streams and oceans. Some become sewage plant sludge which is then used as a crop fertiliser. And since the beads do not break down, they remain on farmland and are eventually eaten by animals.

The US has now banned the use of plastic microbeads and Greenpeace is arguing for a similar ban in the UK. The Indiana students claim their soap - SoyFoliate - will take the place of products made from plastic microbeads. SoyFoliate contains exfoliating soy beads which are said to be naturally biodegradable.

The four students from Purdue University together won $20,000 (€17,000) for taking first place in the 2016 Student Soybean Product Innovation Competition, which is supported by Indiana's soy bean farmers.

Other prizewinners included a group of students who produced soy-based detergent pods.