The EU Takes Aim at Plastic Pellet Pollution

On 10 March 2025, an oil tanker and a container ship collided in the North Sea. The resulting explosions and fires caused the death of a crew member and resulted in a spill of 17,515 barrels of aviation fuel, causing a significant environmental event. Cleanup crews quickly realized there was another hazard lurking on board the container ship: plastic pellets.

The 5 millimeter pellets quickly dispersed, carried on waves and the air, making them impossible to contain. They began washing ashore a week later in the Wash and North Norfolk Coast Special Area of Conservation, an internationally important, protected area and a habitat for rare and threatened terns and wading birds, according to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund.

Both the plastic particles and the chemical additives within all varieties of microplastics are serious concerns. “Plastic pellets are often mistaken for food by many animals, especially birds and fish. If they eat too many, they can starve to death, as plastic can block their digestive tracts. If we eat a fish that has eaten a pellet or another type of microplastic, both the plastic and its associated chemicals can be passed on to us,” Kelly Leviker, Beyond Plastic advocate at PIRQ, told 3E.

Fast forward three weeks to just after midnight on 9 April 2025, when the European Parliament, the European Council, and the European Commission struck a late-night provisional agreement on the long-awaited EU regulation to prevent plastic pellet losses to the environment. The provisional regulation was initially proposed in October 2023, after a petition signed by 90,000 Europeans galvanized parliamentarians, who voted 538 to 32 in favor of adopting binding rules in place of voluntary recommendations.