The sparkly substance may look innocent enough, but glitter may pose a severe threat to the environment given the amount of plastic it contains.

The majority of glitter products are made from plastic, and the small size of its particles can make it an ecological hazard, particularly in the oceans.

Because of this, in August 2018 61 British music festivals committed to ban its attendees from wearing glitter.

Now, environmental campaigners are urging retailers to stop selling products containing glitter altogether.

Campaign group 38 Degrees has launched a petition addressed to environment secretary Michael Gove calling for an urgent ban on glitter and lustre, a thin coating used to add shiny glaze to ceramics.

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A father and son on a makeshift boat made from styrofoam paddle through a garbage filled river as they collect plastic bottles that they can sell in junkshops in Manila. The father and son team earn some three US dollars a day retrieving recyclables from the river. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A composite image of items found on the shore of the Thames Estuary in Rainham, Kent. Tons of plastic and other waste lines areas along the Thames Estuary shoreline, an important feeding ground for wading birds and other marine wildlife. Getty Images Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Children collect plastic water bottles among the garbage washed ashore at the Manila Bay. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, at current rates of pollution, there will likely be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Plastics and other detritus line the shore of the Thames Estuary. In December 2017 Britain joined the other 193 UN countries and signed up to a resolution to help eliminate marine litter and microplastics in the sea. It is estimated that about eight million metric tons of plastic find their way into the world's oceans every year. Once in the Ocean plastic can take hundreds of years to degrade, all the while breaking down into smaller and smaller 'microplastics,' which can be consumed by marine animals, and find their way into the human food chain. Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A dump site in Manila in 2013. The Philippines financial capital banned disposable plastic shopping bags and styrofoam food containers, as part of escalating efforts across the nation's capital to curb rubbish that exacerbates deadly flooding. AFP/Getty Images Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Children swims in the sea full of garbage in North Jakarta, Indonesia. Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures An Indian woman holds a jar filled with Yamuna river water polluted with froth and toxic foam to be used for rituals at the river bank in New Delhi, India. The Yamuna River, like all other holy rivers in India, has been massively polluted for decades now. The river that originates in a glacier in the pristine and unpolluted Himalayas, and flows through Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh before merging with the Ganges River in Allahabad, once used to be the lifeline of the Indian capital. Currently, it is no more than a large, open sewer that is choking with industrial and domestic discharge that includes plastic, flowers and debris and has virtually no aquatic life. EPA Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Plastic waste is washed up on South Troon beach in Scotland. Recent reports by scientists have confirmed, plastics dumped in the world oceans are reaching a dangerous level with micro plastic particles now being found inside filter feeding animals and amongst sand grains on our beaches. Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Children collect plastic to be sold and recycled, in a polluted river in suburban Manila. The city's trash disposal agency traps solid waste floating down waterways that was thrown into the water by residents of slums along riverbanks upstream. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures View of the Carpayo Beach in La Punta, Callao, some 15 km of Lima. In 2013, the NGO VIDA labeled the Carpayo Beach as the most polluted in the country - 40 tons of trash on each 500m2. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Trash from Kamilo Beach in Hawaii. Gabriella Levine/Flickr Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A scavenger collects plastic cups for recycling in a river covered with rubbish near Pluit dam in Jakarta. Reuters Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Rubbish fills Omoa beach in Honduras. Floating masses of garbage offshore from some of the Caribbean's pristine beaches are testimony to a vast and growing problem of plastic pollution heedlessly dumped in our oceans, locals, activists and experts say. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A man climbs down to a garbage filled river in Manila. Plastic rubbish will outweigh fish in the oceans by 2050 unless the world takes drastic action to recycle the material, a report warned in 2016. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Garbage on East Beach, Henderson Island (Pitcairn Islands), in the south Pacific Ocean. The uninhabited island has been found to have the world's highest density of waste plastic, with more than 3,500 additional pieces of litter washing ashore daily at just one of its beaches. EPA

The letter, written by activist Peter Roberts, cites a recent study led by Professor Richard Thompson which found one third of fish in the North Sea contained microplastic particles.

Despite some supermarkets having issued bans on plastic products, with Waitrose pledging to remove glitter from its own-brand lines by 2020 and Aldi announcing plans to remove glitter from its Halloween and Christmas ranges, the campaigners insist retailers aren’t acting fast enough to combat the problem.

“Glitter might look lovely but, because it’s plastic, it sticks around long after the sparkle has gone – often in the stomachs of fish and birds,” explained David Innes of 38 Degrees.

“Some major supermarkets are moving to ban these harmful microplastics, but the British public is clear; supermarkets should be moving faster to tackle plastic waste,” he told The Guardian.

But scientists have been calling for a ban on glitter for years. In November 2017, Dr Trisia Farrelly, an environmental anthropologist at Massey University, said she thought all glitter should be banned “because it’s microplastic”.

“When people think about glitter they think of party and dress-up glitter,” she added. “But glitter includes cosmetic glitters as well, the more everyday kind that people don’t think about as much.”

Some shower gel products, for example, contain glitter. There are, however, eco-friendly ways to produce similar products that are equally aesthetically pleasing.

In January 2018, cosmetics chain Lush replaced glitter with a synthetic biodegradable alternative known as synthetic mica, which it uses to jazz up its famous bath bombs.

“When we were no longer able to guarantee transparency in the supply chain, we decided to make the change to synthetic mica,” read a statement released by the company at the time.