Labelling and reporting of plastic pellets

Without labels and tracking it is unclear the scale of pellet loss at sea. Labelling and clear reporting of the movement of pellets, annual emissions and clear instructions on how to use and dispose of pellets safely is required. This solution could help increase accountability, promote best practice and hopefully monitoring could provide evidence for the introduction of laws.

Opportunity

Labelling and reporting will raise awareness, with information reaching all parts of the plastic supply chain. Reporting is complementary to other regulatory action to make sure the effectiveness of other solutions can be tracked and measured.

Challenge

There are no standardised methods for reporting, limited data and no clear reporting requirements. This could lead to industry being in control on what they define to be useful metrics to report and could result in pellet pollution to continue to be overlooked. Reporting needs to be standardised.
Reporting and labelling alone will not stop pellet pollution, and this solution needs to be implemented alongside others to make an impact.

Current Activity

The European Union is considering introducing laws that require companies handling pellets to report annual emissions and pellets sold to include instruction for use and disposal. NGO’s (including Fidra) have called for strengthened requirements, e.g. using hazard labelling on packaging.

Actions

• Call for hazard labelling on packaging of plastic pellets
• Call for third party auditing
• Call for standardised methods of reporting
• Call for transparency across the supply chain

Resources