Plastic pipe dataaround Europe

Operation Clean Sweep

Reducing Plastic Pellet Loss to the Environment. Operation Clean Sweep® is an international initiative from the plastics industry to reduce plastic pellet loss to the environment. The initiative’s aim is to ensure that the plastic pellets, flakes and powders that pass through manufacturing facilities are handled with care and do not end up in our rivers or seas. All operational sites of TEPPFA member companies have signed up in EU Operation Clean Sweep since 2021. Plastics Europe and EuPC have recently launched European Operation Clean Sweep® certification scheme. The scheme is a milestone for the OCS programme in its work towards zero pellet loss in the environment. Operational from February 2023, the first ever European pellet loss prevention certification scheme will be implemented in the form of harmonised processes and procedures for controlling and documenting pellet loss across the entire plastics supply chain. Click here to see more information on the European Operation Clean Sweep® certification scheme.

SIGN UP TO OPERATION CLEAN SWEEP

Operation Clean Sweep® helps your company ensure that plastic pellets are contained on-site, shows your company’s commitment to the environment and highlights to others that you are a responsible manufacturer.

SIGN UP HERE

OCS MANUAL AND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Signing up to Operation Clean Sweep® is a simple process, and a variety of resources are provided containing key information.

ACCESS TOOLS

THE PROGRAMME

Reducing Plastic Pellet Loss to the Environment

Designed for industry to prevent the spread of pellets into the environment, Operation Clean Sweep® (OCS) aims to assist each link in the plastics industry, resin manufacturers, carriers and plastics processors to implement good handling practices with granules (pellets) and maintenance of industrial sites.

A challenge for the plastics industry

The characteristics of this microlitter and its discharge to the environment is a collective challenge for all companies in this sector.

1. Constant vigilance:

  • Plastic pellets are not household waste.
  • Their management and disposal is neither under the responsibility of consumers, nor of public authorities.
  • They are raw materials.
  • Their containment outside natural habitats falls almost exclusively under the vigilance of manufacturers and operators in the supply chain.

2. Credibility at stake:

  • Operation Clean Sweep® fully meets the commitments made by world leaders in the plastics industry in the “Joint declaration for solutions to the problem of marine litter” signed in 2011, during the 5th International Conference on Marine Debris, Honolulu.
  • The “stewardship of the transport and distribution of plastic resin pellets and products from supplier to customer to prevent product loss and the encouragement of our customers to do the same” are explicitly listed among the six major goals of the statement.
VISIT THE OCS WEBSITE