The effort to secure the world’s first regional policy to curb a major source of microplastic pollution in Europe took a welcome step forward this week when the Council of the EU finalized its position on important new regulation to tackle plastic pellets.
Also known as nurdles or mermaid’s tears, plastic pellets are tiny granules used to manufacture virtually all plastic products. Unfortunately, the pellets are also the third-largest source of microplastic pollution in Europe and pose significant risks to ecosystems, wildlife, and communities. An estimated 184,000 tonnes leak into Europe’s environment each year, affecting coastal and inland areas. When ingested, microplastics can affect the reproduction, growth and survival of a range of aquatic organisms, including zooplankton, crustaceans, fish, seabirds and coral. In a study of fulmars—a species of seabird—in the North Sea, researchers found that 92% of birds had ingested plastic, including pellets, with an average of 21 particles per bird. As well as physical harm, these plastic pieces can also cause toxicological harm, acting like a sponge that absorbs and releases toxic chemicals. Yet despite the mounting evidence of the threat from microplastic pollution, policymakers often overlook this pervasive problem.
In a meeting this week, representatives of the 27 EU member states finalized the Council’s position on the landmark legislation, which was proposed in 2023 and is now nearing the final stages of the EU’s policymaking process.
The discussions yielded progress on several fronts, including by amending the proposed legislation to include specific obligations for sea-going vessels transporting plastic pellets, in line with the recommendations of the International Maritime Organization. This represents a significant advancement, considering Europe’s role in the global plastic supply chain and the dramatic effects of maritime spills on ecosystems. However, the legislation includes limited measures for the maritime sector that focus only on preventive actions, such as packaging and stowage. As the legislation moves through the final stages, policymakers should strengthen it by making provisions on reporting, third-party certification, risk management plans, and containment and cleanup requirements mandatory for maritime actors. There needs to be a consistent framework of obligations for all actors involved in plastic pellet transport to ensure a level playing field.
Questions remain about other key provisions of the text, namely how authorities should evaluate actors or whether companies that handle a certain volume of pellets should face stricter rules than others. For example, the Council agreed that only operators handling more than 1,000 tonnes of plastic pellets a year should undergo third-party, independent certification, conduct yearly reviews of their internal risk assessment plans or establish training programs.
Such a provision would severely undermine the regulation’s effectiveness. Each tonne contains around 50 million individual pellets, and once released into the environment, any volume of pellets is almost impossible to clean up. EU policymakers must do more to prevent the burden of this pollution from falling disproportionately on local communities, no matter its origin.
The urgent need for these measures is underscored by recent pellet spills in Galicia, Spain; Brittany, France; and the North Sea, as well as ongoing chronic pollution near production sites in Brindisi, Italy and Ecaussinnes, Belgium. In these locations, pellet pollution has devastated marine and terrestrial habitats, disrupted ecosystems, and strained local communities with cleanup responsibilities.
As the legislation moves next to trilogue negotiations, where the Council, European Parliament, and European Commission will reconcile differences in their positions to reach an agreement, Pew urges EU policymakers to seize this opportunity to strengthen the draft legislation. Specifically, all companies, irrespective of their size or the volume of pellets they handle, should be held to high anti-pollution standards. This should include removing the 1,000-tonne threshold to ensure that the EU can meet the objective—in the 2021 Zero Pollution Action Plan—of reducing microplastic pollution by 30% by 2030. Maritime transport operators should have mandatory requirements for containment and cleanup, and the rules should streamline verification of compliance into an effective framework that helps minimize loopholes in the legislation and facilitate implementation across the entire supply chain throughout EU member states.
A comprehensive and harmonised framework is essential to address plastic pellet pollution at its sources and protect ecosystems and communities. This legislation has the potential to cement the European Union as a global leader in ambitious environmental legislation against microplastic pollution.
Selene Álvarez Peña is a senior associate and Natacha Tullis is an officer with The Pew Charitable Trusts’ preventing ocean plastics project.