The global economy depends on maritime transportation, but there are risks to the environment—especially from plastic pellets. For example, Europe’s famed Wadden Sea—a UNESCO World Heritage Site—is the world’s largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats, is home to marine mammals, fish and shellfish and is a vital route for migratory birds. Unfortunately, it was also the site of the MSC Zoe container spill in January 2019, when 550 million plastic pellets were released into the Dutch Wadden Sea.
Disaster struck again in another area of ecological importance. This time, in the scenic Complexo Intermareal Umia-O Grove off the Spanish Atlantic coast, the Toconao in late 2023 lost a container with 26 tonnes of plastic pellets. Complexo Intermareal Umia O-Grove is one of just 2,000 Ramsar protected wetlands sites in the world. Estimates indicate that just 4 tonnes of pellets have been collected from the affected region.
Another spill occurred off the coast of France in early 2023, and the MV Trans Carrier spill that impacted the coastlines of Denmark, Norway and Sweden in 2020 led to a year-long clean-up effort that removed a little over 4 tonnes of the 13 tonnes of pellets lost, leaving the rest in the environment. That’s four maritime pellet spills in EU waters in the last five years alone.
Pellets—including flakes and powders—are the starting material for all plastic production. They are also lost at all stages of production—from handling and storage to distribution, and especially transportation by land and sea worldwide. Their loss, both chronic and acute, is the third-largest source of microplastic pollution in Europe, with an estimated 184,000 tonnes of pellets ending up in the environment each year.
Transportation is a critical step in the plastic pellet supply chain, with numerous documented incidents of pellet loss from trucks, trains and ships in recent years. In addition, not all bags are sealed, airtight and puncture-resistant to prevent damage and tears. Yet the European Commission’s original “Preventing plastic pellet loss in the environment’’ proposal omitted all forms of transportation from its scope, despite the European Union’s significant role in the global plastic pellet supply chain; the EU accounts for approximately 40 per cent of global trade imports of plastics in primary form, which is the basic form of plastic before pellets are transformed into finished products.
Though plastic-producing companies and trade associations have had more than 30 years to address pellet loss through voluntary best management practices under a program called Operation Clean Sweep, this strategy has had limited success, with particularly little uptake in the transportation sector. Now it is time to mandate that transporters be included among the businesses and organizations responsible for preventing pellet loss.
As maritime transport accounts for over two-thirds of freight transport in the EU, and as maritime accidents play a significant role in plastic pellet loss and have transboundary consequences for humans and the environment, maritime transport must be covered by any new EU legislation to tackle pellet loss. If not, a gaping hole will be left in what should be a comprehensive legal framework that fully addresses the entire supply chain of plastic pellets. This is why Pew and our partner Fauna & Flora are advocating for the inclusion of maritime transport in the proposed EU Preventing Plastic Pellet Loss Regulation.
Preventative action can be taken to minimize the risk of maritime spills as millions of tonnes of plastic pellets are moved around the world by sea. The Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization has developed voluntary measures to address this issue. In early 2024, the MEPC approved a voluntary circular with three requirements: clear labelling; notification protocols for containers carrying plastic pellets; and strict stowage guidelines to ensure that containers are secured below deck or in sheltered locations whenever possible. These elements collectively introduce multiple layers of protection that significantly reduce the risk of pellet loss at sea.
And while the costs of pollution incidents are significant and leave damage that often cannot be mitigated because plastic pellets do not biodegrade and are nearly impossible to remove, the cost of preventative measures is relatively small. For instance, labelling a ship container costs approximately €15, and upgrading to United Nations-certified liner bags that securely hold pellets inside a container represents only a €13 increase from the current cost of standard liner bags.
To protect European beaches and preserve our natural marine heritage from pellet pollution, EU Member States must incorporate mandatory measures into EU pellet loss legislation, currently under consideration, mandatory measures to minimize the risk of future maritime spills in European waters. The EU already recognized the serious threat that maritime pellet pollution poses to the marine and coastal environment by supporting the adoption of the IMO’s MEPC circular earlier this year. Now it is imperative that Member States expand the draft regulation on the table to include maritime transport of plastic pellets, ensuring that the legislation leads the world in both ambition and scope.
Selene Álvarez Peña is a senior associate and Natacha Tullis is an officer with The Pew Charitable Trusts’ preventing ocean plastics project.