On Thursday, October 23, the European Parliament definitively gave its approval to regulations designed to curb contamination stemming from the minute pellets that serve as the fundamental components of most plastic goods.
The text establishes novel stipulations to hold firms involved in the handling and conveyance responsible for leakages of these small pellets, termed nurdles, utilized in a variety of products from automobile bumpers to salad dishes. Without any alterations or rejection proposals submitted, the proposition gained approval without needing a formal vote, following endorsement from a considerable majority within the parliament’s environmental committee earlier in the week.
Unintentional releases
Composed of fossil fuels, these plastic pellets are transported by ships or lorries to plastic manufacturers for conversion into diverse items or elements.
Data from the European Commission indicates that annually, as much as 180,000 metric tons of pellets — equating to 20 truckloads daily — are scattered into the environment across the 27 member nations because of negligent handling, resulting in the contamination of shorelines and oceans.
Nurdles significantly amplify marine contamination due to their diminutive size, buoyancy, and resistance to decomposition.
Land and maritime freight companies
According to the new “regulation on preventing plastic pellet losses to reduce microplastic pollution,” transportation businesses will be obliged to guarantee the avoidance of such losses. In occurrences where losses take place, they are mandated to promptly report and contain pellet spills, undertaking the necessary cleanup. Furthermore, they must furnish an assessment, within 30 days, detailing the extent of microplastics released into the ecosystem.
“These regulations imply they are no longer able to assert, ’It wasn’t our fault,” stated the socialist representative Cesar Luena, who spearheaded the legislation’s progression through parliament. “We are holding them accountable — it is incumbent upon them to notify the relevant authorities.”
Inland transport enterprises will be granted two years for compliance, while maritime transport will have three years — encountering specific new responsibilities in spite of efforts from certain EU nations for its omission from the legislation.
The regulations will obligate freight companies to assure packaging of adequate quality and conspicuously mark cargo as comprising microplastics.
The regulations will be pertinent to all enterprises conveying more than five tons of microplastics annually within the EU — irrespective of whether the companies themselves are based in Europe.
Internal assessments
Furthermore, all businesses participating in the production, transport, or processing of pellets will be compelled to undertake risk evaluations to avert spillage — and to remediate should they occur.
Entities that manufacture or transport over 1,500 metric tons of microplastics per year will be mandated to secure certification from an independent organization within a five-year timeframe following the regulation’s enactment.
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) handling below 1,500 metric tons per year per facility will be subjected to diminished responsibilities only.
The European Commission anticipates that this statute will yield a decline of 54 to 74 per cent in pellet discharges into the environment. The updated regulation aligns with the Commission’s broader objective of curtailing microplastic pollution by 30 per cent by the year 2030.
