Operation Clean Sweep® – National SRP

Plastic resin pellets are the feedstock for the plastics industry, being the basis of all plastic products – from plastic bags to bottles to containers. Also known as pre production plastic or nurdles, the raw material is heated and chemically treated to mould plastic goods.

Plastic resin pellets are one member of a growing family of small plastic pollution. Advances in plastic fabrication technology have given rise to mini pellets which are 2mm or less in size and micro pellets which are 1mm or less. Plastic fragments resulting from the wearing and breakage of intact plastic products reduce down through small to microscopic sizes.

Plastic resin also comes in powder form, the grains of which are around 200 micron and this takes us into the microscopic realm. Photo degradation of plastic items generates a whitish powder – microscopic grains which are still plastic and retain their toxic loads. Another member of this family is plastic scrubbers – as exfoliates in skin care products and also as specialised air blasting media. Scrubbers are around 500 micron in size. As the size of a plastic pollutant decreases, increasing numbers of smaller organisms become exposed to it and the pollutants it carries.

Huge volumes of plastic resin pellets are produced and shipped around the world each year. An alarming number of these pellets are constantly being lost to the marine environment both from direct cargo loss at sea and from spillage around factories and transport routes on land. A large proportion of these land spillages eventually find their way into drainage systems and out to sea. At sea pellets are circulated throughout the world’s oceans.

As plastic resin pellets resemble small fish eggs, they can be confused as food by marine life such as turtles and fish but also seabirds, accumulating toxins that are in the seawater that they float through. This results in a toxic pellet that can cause blockages, as well as toxicity in the tissues of wildlife, these pellets cannot be passed through their digestive tracts leading to malnutrition and starvation.

Overall Goals

Developed by the international plastics industry, Operation Clean Sweep® has been implemented across Melbourne over the last few years, and now with the support of Tangaroa Blue Foundation and Chemistry Australia, the program is being rolled out across the country.

The message is simple: plastic resin pellets, flakes, and powder should be contained, reclaimed, and/or disposed of properly, not lost into the environment. ReefClean invited the Queensland plastics and logistics industries to make zero pellet loss their goal with a pledge to Operation Clean Sweep®.

The Pledge is as follows:

Our company recognises the importance of preventing the loss of resin pellets into the environment and we are committed to implementing the Operation Clean Sweep program. We will be an Operation Clean Sweep Program Partner, strive towards zero pellet loss and make changes wherever possible and practical to:

• Improve our worksite set-up to prevent and address spills;
• Create and publish internal procedures to achieve zero pellet loss goals;
• Provide employee training and accountability for spill prevention, containment, clean-up and disposal;
• Audit our performance regularly; and
• Comply with all applicable local, state and national regulations governing pellet containment.

This SRP was focused on educating all employees within the industry on how to properly handle and dispose of plastic pellets, with a goal of zero pellet loss. It provides multiple benefits, including reducing the cost around the loss of product, improving workplace safety by reducing slips and falls, aligning with a social licence to operate processes, and achieving environmental and sustainability goals.

Using the location specific data collected from ‘Let’s Strain the Drains’ stormwater drain traps, we approached plastic industries with evidence of pellet loss. This incentivised them to sign the pledge and look at responsible disposal and transportation of the nurdles. 

The Pellet Alert Project invited volunteers to monitor and report occurrences of Plastic Resin Pellets on their coastline. We also received samples of pellets which are sent on for analysis of toxins that the pellets may have absorbed while in the ocean environment.