Green MP Grace O’Sullivan was on the Galician coast over the weekend to meet volunteers trying to clean up the mess that emerges each time the tide rises.
Political controversy erupted over the incident just weeks after the European Commission proposed tightening regulations on the transport of plastic pellets.
Industry lobbyists want to water down the proposal, and there is a long road ahead before it becomes law.
Yet it does not address the fundamental problem of increased plastic use, despite increasing plastic pollution in our oceans, soil, wildlife, and our own diets.
The incident began on December 8 last year, when the container ship Toconao, chartered by shipping giant Maersk, lost six containers off the coast of Galicia.
One container contained 1,000 25 kg bags of new white plastic pellets that were to be melted and molded into water bottles and other food containers.
Each pellet is only 2-3 mm in diameter and can easily be mistaken for a small pebble or a piece of broken shell or fish cartilage. Volunteers must get down on all fours with tweezers and try to take them out.
“They have to be very careful,” said O’Sullivan, who visited several beaches that make up Galicia’s 1,900 kilometers of coastline.
And every day you have to start again.
“At one beach, I met volunteers who were primarily involved in collecting shellfish,” she said.
“It’s mainly women who go out and pick up shellfish by hand. It’s a very sustainable way of collecting shellfish, but it’s physically demanding.
“Unfortunately, as is often the case when the majority of the workforce is female, women are at the bottom in terms of pay, conditions and pensions. And now they are also addressing this issue. .”
There are multiple reasons why they should address the issue.
Microplastics are already a major problem in the marine environment, with fish, birds and marine mammals routinely ingesting microplastics and dying after accidentally eating them.
Although these pellets look clean, they also act as sponges, absorbing toxins in the marine environment and producing a powerful cocktail of chemicals that can lead to death from poisoning.
Officials don’t think so, and local officials say they were not informed of the leak by the government until the new year.
“There’s still a certain amount of pressure on volunteers because there are stakeholders who don’t want this to be noticed,” O’Sullivan said.
“Fishing is very important here and the beaches of the Asturian region are very important for tourism.”
Maersk said in a statement that the incident was immediately reported to the Spanish and Portuguese coast guards. “There were no hazardous materials in the six containers,” the report said, although environmentalists disputed this.
“The vessel owner appointed a cleaning specialist to assist in removing the pellets.
“[They] “Efforts to recover pellets from affected beaches are progressing steadily,” he continued, but environmentalists will question this.
“The situation is changing daily as both weather and tides influence the levels of stranded material.”
Both sides agree on this, and environmentalists warn that the situation could continue to change for months, if not years, as the pellets spread far and wide in the ocean.
“It takes everyone here back to 2002 with the Prestige oil tanker disaster,” O’Sullivan said, recalling the spill of 18 million gallons of oil along the coast of Galicia and northern Portugal. .
Last October, the European Commission proposed regulations that would require stronger packaging and stricter monitoring and reporting requirements for companies using and transporting plastic pellets.
The commission estimates that up to 184,000 tonnes of pellets are lost to the environment in the EU each year through accidents and lax procedures.
Even if these regulations become law, there are concerns that they will not be able to keep up with the increasing demand for plastics.
“We need to address the problem at its source,” Ms O’Sullivan said.
“That means stopping the flow of excess plastic packaging.
“Because they are made with fossil fuels, they are accelerating climate change and consumers are paying a lot of money for it.
“Because food is bundled in plastic, they pay money every time they go to the supermarket and then pay again when they get rid of it, so they end up paying twice for something they don’t need. , which has a major impact on the environment and the food chain.”
“We have created a monster, a plastic monster, and we need to take back control of it.”