EU lawmakers lend support to plastic pellet waste plans

The EU's environment committee has adopted proposed changes to new set of regulations aimed at reducing the loss of waste plastic and promoting new practises to deal with pollution risks.

The regulations require any installations that handle more than 1,000 t/yr of plastic pellets to establish risk assessment plans. The proposed regulation passed the committee with 71 votes in favour, five against and one abstention. The full European Council will now vote on the proposal later this month.

The proposal will apply from two years after enactment of the law for large enterprises, three years for medium sized enterprises and five years for small enterprises. It also allows collecttion of data on the type of polymers and amount plastic pellets handled each year.

Lawmakers have also proposed that containers carrying plastic pellets should have pictogram labels to carry information linked to any danger that may be caused by spillages. According to the EU, 57mn t of plastic pellets were produced and handled in the EU in 2021 and up to 180,000t of pellets are lost into the environment each year.

Additional measures include a report on introducing chemical traceability to plastic pellets, to be published by the commission two years after the introduction of the new regulations, and mandatory training for enterprises working with plastic pellets.

These regulations come as EU diplomats have endorsed the Packaging and Plastic Waste Regulation (PPWR), which will aim to introduce mandatory requirements for recycled content across almost all plastic packaging in the single market.

By George Barsted