Two Mt Aspiring College students have joined the move to take the plastic out of glitter.
Lauren Rimmer (14) and Maisy Millwater (13) operate a face-painting business at A and P shows, festivals and birthday parties.
Their point of difference is that they use non-plastic "bio-glitter".
Their reasoning is that glitter ends up going down the drain, into the ocean and into the food chain.
"The good thing about bio-glitter," says Lauren, "is that it doesn’t affect the fish and that it is biodegradable so that it won’t stay on the planet forever.
"Bio-glitter also looks better.
"It’s not an in-your-face mirror shine; it’s more pleasing to look at."
And, she says customers get the added bonus of knowing their face or body painting won’t harm the environment.
Finding a suitable non-plastic glitter was not easy, however.
Lauren: "Lots of people email us their glitter is eco-friendly and then it turns out it is made of plastic.
"So when we found good glitter we bought a lot of it."
One non-plastic bio-glitter is made with aluminium and an extract from eucalyptus trees.
The students are now investigating how to sell bio-glitter, but finding packaging that does not contain plastic is also difficult.
And, says Maisy, they are struggling to convince a bank that they should be able to have a business account under their trade name, Pretty Litty Body Art.
"People sometimes want to talk to our mums and not us about it."
They believe one potential market for bio-glitter is pre-schools, where children sometimes eat glitter.
Maisy recalls being one of those children.
They, and their model, Tia McCutcheon (11) have always been interested in make up and hope to expand their business to doing more festivals and parties.
Dr Trisia Farrelly of Massey University told the Otago Daily Times yesterday that plastic glitter was a small part of the micro-bead pollution affecting oceans.
"Those trillions of tiny, shiny flecks are a threat to marine life and human health, so it’s time to ban the plastic-based kind and use biodegradable versions made of materials such as mica."
Dr Farrelly said that microbeads were banned in the United States in 2015, and were due to be banned in Britain and New Zealand next year.
It was unclear whether the ban here would also include plastic glitter.
