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CLEAN UP THE WORLD PLASTICS POLLUTION • RIDDING THE WORLD’S OCEAN OF MICROPLASTICS WILL BE A LONG TASK BUT INDUSTRY IS ALREADY WORKING ON IT; THE SUPPLY CHAIN WILL ALSO BE SUBJECT TO CONTROLS PUBLIC AWARENESS ABOUT the environmental impact of waste plastics, especially in the world’s oceans, is a relatively recent phenomenon but industry has been alert to the issue for some time. Operation Clean Sweep® (OCS) was established first in North America in the 1990s and has been implemented in Europe since 2015. It aims to prevent the loss of plastics granules during handling and their release into the environment and is one of the projects of the Global Plastics Alliance’s Marine Litter Solutions programme. OCS is going to be more firmly established in Europe very soon. The European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) and PlasticsEurope have been formalising their cooperation in
developing external auditing tools and, during the course of 2020, work has been going on to define the four audit modules. These will cover: production; master-batching, compounding and converting; transport and logistics; and recycling. For those involved in the transport and logistics function, this raises the possibility of a further round of auditing, on top of those already experienced. In an online meeting this past June, the European Chemical Transport Association (ECTA), the European Federation of Chemical Distributors (Fecc), the European Plastics Converters (EuPC) and PlasticsEurope strongly supported the idea that this module of OCS auditing should be integrated with – or at the very least closely related to – existing
auditing modules within the Safety & Quality Assessment for Sustainability (SQAS) programme. Such an approach would avoid the need for additional auditing costs and time, while also recognising the work done under the SQAS programme to address the issue. ALIGNING AUDITS ECTA says that an extra revision cycle may be needed to the existing SQAS modules in 2021 to incorporate specific aspects required by OCS and it will be working with Cefic on this process. ECTA warns that, if logistics companies involved in the polymer supply chain are not able to provide evidence through SQAS that their self-regulation is sufficient to ensure zero pellet loss during their operations, then wider legislation may be introduced, which may involve new international standards and a separate certification scheme. ECTA membership includes a commitment to Responsible Care principles and their annual reporting to ECTA, including improvement plans, can be expanded to include key performance indicators (KPIs) under OCS. ECTA notes that those OCS requirements are also included in the ECTA Responsible Care Commitment statements. In the near term, ECTA is eager to hear from its members with their reactions to the OCS development and, if necessary, it will organise a separate webinar early in 2021 to discuss the matter further. Meanwhile, PlasticsEurope reports that all its 52 member companies are now part of the OCS programme, after it made it compulsory as from the start of 2020. Indeed, by the end of 2019, nearly 700 companies and associations along the entire plastics value chain in Europe had joined the programme, representing a 40 per cent increase in just one year. Notably, more than 100 logistics operators added their names in 2019 alone. The Port of Antwerp and PD Ports in the UK were early signatories and, during 2019, the Spanish ports of Cartagena and Tarragona, along with the port of Felixstowe in the UK, also joined the programme. WHERE IT STARTED In Europe, OCS includes six commitments, one of which is to audit performance
HCB MONTHLY | NOVEMBER 2020