PlasticsEurope, the Pan-European trade association representing plastics manufacturers, launched today its Operation Clean Sweep® (OCS) annual Progress Report taking stock of the advancements made by our members together with the value chain towards ending pellet loss in any environment. On this occasion, PlasticsEurope unveiled its action plan, together with the plastics value chain, for the development of a European zero pellet loss certification scheme by 2022. It will set common requirements based on the six pillars of the OCS pledge that will be audited regularly by accredited third parties. The aim is to have all PlasticsEurope member companies externally audited by 2025.

“This approach will enable the plastics industry to transparently demonstrate its efforts to implement concrete measures towards zero pellet loss into the environment”, explained Dr Markus Steilemann, CEO of Covestro and President of PlasticsEurope. “This is an open invitation to the plastics value chain to join us”.

Pellets, powders and flakes are different types of raw materials transformed into plastic products. Whilst high environmental, safety and quality management controls are applied throughout the plastics industry, unintentional loss of pellets can occur at different stages along the value chain. The OCS programme provides recommendations to companies on how to achieve zero pellet loss and is an essential part of PlasticsEurope’s 2030 Voluntary Commitment.

The plastics value chain’s support for OCS continued to grow in 2019 when close to 700 companies joined the programme, amongst which three additional major European ports, handling plastic pellets – Cartagena, Tarragona (ES) and Felixstowe (UK). Moreover, PlasticsEurope reached an important milestone by extending the OCS membership to 100% of its members to which the pledge is applicable.

“I am proud that PlasticsEurope became the first trade association in the world that made OCS compulsory for its members”, said Virginia Janssens, Managing Director of PlasticsEurope. “The global issue of pellet loss can only be solved by taking joint action, together with the full plastics value chain”, Virginia Janssens added.

Background:

The six commitments of OCS in Europe

The OCS programme is based on six pillars: improve worksite set-up to prevent and address spills, create internal procedures to achieve zero plastic material loss, provide employee training and accountability, auditing, legal compliance and awareness raising to value chain partners.

What is OCS?

PlasticsEurope is the European coordinator of the global initiative “Operation Clean Sweep®” – the programme for zero pellet loss. As such, PlasticsEurope encourages the entire plastics value chain, be it member companies, logistics providers, transporters, converters or recyclers to join the programme and implement it in their daily activities.

The full report is available here: www.opcleansweep.eu and www.plasticseurope.org

Further activities supporting the fight against marine litter can be found on www.marinelittersolutions.org.

Editors’ note

PlasticsEurope is one of the leading European trade associations with centres in Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan and Paris. We are networking with European and national plastics associations and have more than 100 member companies, producing over 90% of all polymers across the EU27 member states plus Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and UK.

The European plastics industry makes a significant contribution to the welfare in Europe by enabling innovation, creating quality of life to citizens and facilitating resource efficiency and climate protection. Over 1.6 million people are working in close to 60,000 companies (mainly small and medium sized companies in the converting sector) to create a turnover of more than 360 bn EUR per year. The plastics industry includes polymer producers - represented by PlasticsEurope, converters - represented by EuPC and machine manufacturers - represented by EUROMAP.

For further info see the web links: www.plasticseurope.org, www.plasticsconverters.eu, www.euromap.org.