The Department of Climate Action of the Generalitat has opened a file for non-compliance with the Environmental Responsibility law eight chemical companies located in Tarragona that would be behind microplastics or pellets that have been appearing on the area’s beaches for at least five years.
The companies investigated, according to the resolution of the file to which Efe had access and which was notified to the complainant NGO, Surfrider, are Basell Poliolefinas, SK Primacor, Transformadora de Etileno, Katoen Natie, Schmidt Ibérica, Ravago Plásticas, Repsol Química and Dow Chemical Ibérica.
Other companies could be added to these companies due to the same fact, since Acció Climática explained this Tuesday that The file is being expanded to include more companies that may have carried out more discharges.
At the moment, the eight companies against which the procedure was initiated have presented the corresponding allegations in the hearing procedure granted.
Specifically, they are investigating “alleged environmental damage to natural resources and natural resource services caused by their activity in the hydrographic network of the Francolí (river) basin” and, especially, on the beaches of La Pineda, the Prats de Vila-seca, and even Cavalleria beach in Menorca. Possible “affects to the Mediterranean Sea” and its biodiversity, as well as “human health,” are also cited.
The file has been initiated after the Surfrider Foundation reported in October to investigate the origin of this contamination.
This entity works together with the local NGO Good Karma, which since 2018 has been taking samples of microplastics in sand and water.
Specifically, they would have collected more than 700,000 microplastics in 2021 and more than two million in 2022, although as one of the Surfrider spokespersons Xavier Curto explained to Efe, it is very difficult to quantify the total damage because It would be a contamination “persistent over time” and because these microplastics or pellets become embedded in the beach sand and it is very difficult to clean them completely.
Curto explains that It is a “first victory” that the Generalitat has opened a file, since companies in the sector do not have mandatory monitoring regulations on the losses of microplastics in the environment as a result of their activity.
“Right now they regulate themselves but no one audits what they lose to the sea or not,” reflects the environmentalist.
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The decision to open the file has been communicated to the companies involved and also to institutions in the area that are considered to be interested, such as the local councils in the area, which are usually in charge of cleaning the beaches.
Months before the Generalitat confirmed the opening of this file, both the administration and the chemical companies producing plastics established the ‘Zero Pèl·lets’ platform to raise awareness among the entire plastics sector of the environmental impact of loss of these materials and propose new measures that help limit these impacts, an issue that has arisen strongly in Galicia and Cantabria as a result of the latest spills from a ship.