MEXICO CITY — Mexico's plastics industry association has launched a program aimed at stopping plastic pellets from reaching the sea.
The Asociación Nacional de Industrias del Plástico AC (Anipac) unveiled the Cero Pellets initiative at the Plastimagen México trade show in the Mexican capital in mid March.
It's the first such measure taken by the association since seconding a marine litter global action plan, created by international plastics industry representatives in Dubai in November 2011.
The initiative includes a good practices manual, published by Anipac and available to all interested parties. It includes advice on pellet handling and it targets not only processors but resin and logistics companies and terminal operators.
"The idea is to stop the pellets getting into the oceans," Graciela Ramos Rodríguez, a member of Anipac's environment protection commission, told Plastics News.
"Very often workers drop pellets which get washed into the drains and eventually the sea. We don't know the size of the problem but it's big."
Anipac said it has also discussed with the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. in the United States, the American Chemistry Council's plastic division and the Canadian Plastics Industry Association ways of tackling marine litter issues.
