The International Maritime Organization (IMO), a United Nations agency responsible for regulating shipping, has agreed draft recommendations for the carriage of plastic pellets by sea, along with draft guidelines for cleaning up plastic pellet spills from ships.
The new draft rules follow a major plastic pellet spillage along the shores of Galicia, Spain, this January. A cargo ship lost six containers in early December 2023, at least one of which allegedly belonged to Poland-based plastic manufacturer Bedeko Europe, holding more than a thousand bags filled with white plastic pellets. The spillage has motivated an EU committee to consider expanding the definition of plastic pellets in the proposal on preventing plastic pellet losses to reduce microplastic pollution.
The IMO’s sub-committee on Pollution Prevention and Response agreed on the draft recommendations during a meeting between Feb. 19 and 23 in London, UK. The recommendations will be submitted for ‘urgent consideration and approval’ by the Marine Environment Protection Committee at its next meeting in March 2024, the IMO said in a statement.
The recommendations include the following actions:
- Plastic pellets should be packed in good quality packaging which should be strong enough to withstand the shocks and loadings normally encountered during transport. Packaging should be constructed and closed to prevent any loss of contents which may be caused under normal conditions of transport, by vibration or acceleration forces.
- Transport information should clearly identify those freight containers containing plastic pellets. In addition, the shipper should supplement the cargo information with a special stowage request requiring proper stowage.
- Freight containers containing plastic pellets should be properly stowed and secured to minimise the hazards to the marine environment without impairing the safety of the ship and persons on board. Specifically, they should be stowed under deck wherever reasonably practicable, or inboard in sheltered areas of exposed decks.
As for recommendations in the event of a spill, the IMO said it has drafted guidelines providing practical guidance for government authorities and other entities for ‘developing large/scale national strategies as well as smaller/scale site specific response plans’.
The guidelines cover contingency planning response, post-spill monitoring and analysis, intervention, and cost recovery. ‘These will be updated as the industry gains more experience with their applications’, the IMO said in a statement.
The draft guidelines on spillages will be submitted to the Marine Environment Protection Committee in October. In the meantime, the sub-committee invited member states to implement the guidelines early.