Kickstart: Pellet pollution in the news

Plastic pellet pollution used to be a topic that the mainstream media didn't write much about. Not anymore. These days, your neighbors and family probably know something about the issue — although I'm betting that the chances are better than 50-50 that they call them "nurdles" instead of pellets.

I saw a flurry of stories this week reporting that Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., had introduced a bill in Congress that would crack down on pellet pollution. I'm not exactly sure why — he introduced the bill a month ago.

The bill, dubbed the Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act, is sponsored in the Senate by Durbin and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. The legislation would require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to prohibit the discharge of plastic pellets and other pre-production plastic into waterways from facilities and sources that make, use, package or transport pellets.

That's right, it's aimed directly at plastics processors and suppliers. The Senate bill mirrors one in the House that Alan Lowenthal, a California Democrat, introduced in May 2022.

Many Plastics News readers are no doubt familiar with Operation Clean Sweep, an international campaign aimed at helping the industry achieve zero pellet loss. OCS has been a big success for the many companies that follow its protocols, but it's voluntary.

Durbin and Lowenthal want regulations with more teeth, and they want to ensure that all plastics companies follow the best practices to avoid pellet loss — and to be held accountable to cover the costs of spills.

A previous version of the Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act passed the House in 2021 but died in the Senate.

No, you aren't imagining things. If you've seen a pro-plastics documentary on your local PBS station, that is.

The PET packaging sector is featured in an episode of Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid — and a series of national commercials that promote the effort — that started airing Aug. 14.

Plastics organizations behind the project include Amcor Rigid Packaging, the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), the Plastics Industry Association and Plastic Recycling Corp. of California.

This isn't the first plastics-themed Viewpoint. Advanced Drainage Systems Inc. was featured a year ago in a program that highlighted its use of recycled high density polyethylene.

Viewpoint has been around since 2012 and touts itself as "a series of short films focused on public-interest topics." It's not an infomercial, and there's no bill for the documentary, although the producers do charge for "production costs for the value-added creative pieces and cable news network commercial distribution." Residents in Greenfield, Mass., learned about that in 2021, when they found out there was a $27,900 underwriting fee involved.

On the subject of PET packaging, the five-minute video showcases "the facts about PET containers and the importance of recycling," and is available through more than 175 public television stations nationwide.

"The opportunity to tell the circularity story of the PET bottle — from design to manufacturing, into the hands of the consumer and then recycling it again and again and again — is something we believe is critical for our industry and critical for the health of our planet," said Eric Roegner, president of Amcor Rigid Packaging.

It's not as sexy as beer six-pack rings – in fact, it's the definition of a not-very-sexy plastics package – but there's another major brand owner that's getting rid of plastic packaging.

Georgia-Pacific toilet paper brand Quilted Northern has dropped the plastic packaging from some of its products, switching to a recyclable paper wrapping.

The change comes in response to consumer feedback and is aimed at cutting back on plastic pollution. But according to AdWeek, "while plastic-focused environmental groups are praising the move, others are calling it a distraction from the main impact of the tissue industry: deforestation."

Sustainability is a big issue in the toilet paper market. By coincidence – probably not, actually – the same week that Georgia-Pacific announced that it is ditching plastic, the Natural Resources Defense Council released an "Issue with Tissue" report and sustainability scorecard.

Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark and Georgia-Pacific all earned "F" scores across each of their flagship brands like Charmin, Cottonelle and Quilted Northern. NRDC wants them to stop using Canadian boreal forests as feedstock for their products and to start using more sustainable alternatives like bamboo.

"Choosing toilet paper is an often-overlooked climate decision. But chances are, when you flush away your TP, you may not realize that you're also flushing away part of a majestic, centuries-old tree," the group said.