Europe increases pressure against the dumping of plastic pellets on the anniversary of the case in Galicia

12/19/2024

Updated at 7:45 p.m.

A few days ago it was one year since the word pellet sneaked into Spanish slang. Few knew before December 8, 2023 that this term defines a small sphere of no more than 5 millimeters that, united in large quantities, is used as raw material to manufacture countless plastic products. That day, the Toconao, a Liberian-flagged ship, lost a container with 26 tons of these transparent balls 80 kilometers from Galicia. A week later, they began to see each other on countless Galician beaches.

The environmental alarm went off and the population learned that the spills that threaten the health of the sea go beyond fuel. Such was the impact that she has been one of the candidates for FundéuRAE’s word of the year. Now, just on the anniversary of this accident, Europe has taken the step to approve new laws to counteract the continued dumping of this product into the oceans and other natural environments. The objective: to redouble surveillance and pressure on manufacturers and transporters.

The Environment Committee has already approved the text of the new regulations, which goes to Parliament to be voted on. The Spanish Minister of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Sara Aagesen, participated in the council of the 27 European ministers in the field where, in statements to the media, she estimated that the procedure in Parliament will be carried out during the first half of 2025. “It is a fundamental regulation – he valued – in which Spain has been very vocal to include maritime transport in its scope of application”, something that was not initially planned. The spill suffered in Galicia has served to exert pressure in this regard. Finally, the 27 gave their approval with this point included so that the legislative process could move forward.

These new obligations are aimed at the handling of these mini plastic spheres at all stages of the supply chain, which could reduce losses in the environment by up to 74%, the Commission calculates. This becomes especially relevant if we take into account that they are the third most important source of unintentional emissions of microplastics.

“The new rules, the first of their kind in the EU, will help companies minimize losses, thus contributing to the fight against microplastic pollution, which knows no borders or limits,” said Anikó Raisz, Minister of State for Environment and Circular Economy of Hungary, after the successful meeting.

Another new aspect that Europe announces is that the conditions will not only affect transporters from the European Union, but that those from other international jurisdictions will be monitored under equal conditions. At least, for all those “maritime vessels that transport plastic granules, in line with the recommendations of the International Maritime Organization,” details the Commission’s text.

The regulation will apply to all European economic operators that handle plastic pellets in quantities greater than 5 tonnes, transporters that operate with them both inside and outside the EU, companies that are dedicated to cleaning pellet containers and tanks and personnel of shippers, operators, agents and masters of maritime vessels departing from or calling at a port of a Member State.

Manipulation, a problem

The need to include the entire supply chain under this new legislative umbrella comes from the difficulty of managing these products. “When plastic pellets are unintentionally released into the environment, it is usually due to a lack of awareness and poor handling practices on the part of economic operators, transporters and maritime vessels,” assessed the EU Environment Committee. in a statement. The truth is that once they are lost in the environment, it is almost impossible to recover them: wind and water currents easily disperse them over long distances.

Hence, what is sought is, above all, to improve handling practices. Thus, transporters – from the EU and outside – will have to inform the authorities about their establishment and their participation in the transport of plastic granules. To guarantee compliance with these obligations and equal conditions, non-EU citizens will be required to designate an authorized representative in Europe.

The sea, especially vulnerable

In these involuntary leaks that occur frequently, the sea is not only one of the main victims, but also the most vulnerable. The persistence of a plastic pellet in an aquatic environment can be measured for decades or longer, since they are not biodegradable. Furthermore, maritime transport represented around 38% of all pellets transported in the EU in 2022, hence the pressure exerted especially by Spain, having been a recent victim of a spill, to include this sector. Of course, it gives them a year of margin to adapt.

Thus, security is reinforced on this type of transport, among which the guarantee of good quality packaging and the provision of technical and cargo-related information stand out. These obligations are in addition to those relating to the transport of plastic granules by road, rail and inland waterways.

Regarding all the companies involved, the Government of each country will carry out its corresponding surveillance work, through environmental inspections and adopt other verification measures that help control the risk posed by involuntary discharges of these products in the environment.

How do they impact the environment?

The problem that Europe now wants to tackle is of considerable magnitude. Although they recognize that they do not have legislation that contemplates the dumping of microplastics exhaustively, they promote these pioneering regulations to stop a reality that they have a good measure of: the estimate is that in one year, taking 2019 as a reference, they could be lost in the environment between 52,140 and 184,290 tons of pellets in the EU, with the environmental consequences that this has.

Ecologistas en Acción explains them: the presence of these ‘eternal’ plastics whose size makes it easy for them to be ingested by any living being damages the marine ecosystem. The most drastic consequence is that it affects biodiversity and the resources on which our economies also depend. “In the case of Galicia, the fishing and shellfish sector was put at risk,” they add.

Furthermore, the effects are very long term. The aforementioned organization recalls that a year later, pollution persists in areas like Tarragona on a chronic basis. Ecologistas en Acción, Low Impact Fishers of Europe-LIFE, Mulleres Salgadas, Surfrider España, Good Karma Projects, Noia Limpa and The Pew Charitable Trusts have called in a statement for more ambitious regulations to prevent future accidents.

They celebrate the progress in European regulation on pellets, especially because they asked for maritime transport to be left out of the norm, something that ultimately has not happened. What, for them, would have been a “crucial error”, has been saved in the final negotiation.

The organizations insist that both in Galicia and in the Mediterranean, the dumping of plastic pellets threatens biodiversity, food chains and the traditional ways of life of fishermen and coastal communities. “We cannot allow these materials to continue escaping into the sea,” they conclude.