Some European Union lawmakers are pushing to strengthen a planned law on microplastic pollution after millions of plastic pellets washed up on the coast of Spain’s northwestern Galicia region.
Tiny plastic pellets are used to manufacture everyday items from water bottles to shopping bags. They are also an environmental menace, adding to the scourge of plastic in the oceans – and fiendish to clean up because of their tiny size.
The EU is developing a law to prevent spillages of pellets, 176,000 metric tons of which are accidentally released each year, according to the European Chemicals Agency.
Joao Albuquerque, the EU Parliament’s lead negotiator on the new law, on Thursday, said he had proposed expanding the requirements for companies to prevent spills to also include the shipping sector – particularly after the incident in Galicia.
“This has become extremely urgent. These dramas are almost always avoidable,” Albuquerque told an EU Parliament committee meeting.
His proposal would also expand the law to cover not only pellets but the plastic flakes, powders and dust used to manufacture products.
The Parliament is racing to agree on its negotiating position, to give talks with EU countries to finish the law a chance of concluding before the EU elections in June.
Green and liberal lawmakers backed the stronger measures on Thursday. The center-right European People’s Party resisted some, including Albuquerque’s attempt to increase the number of companies covered.
The millions of pellets washed up in Spain came from at least one container that fell from a vessel off the coast of neighboring Portugal last month.
