Operation Clean Sweep
Marc Martens
Unintentional loss of plastic pellets occurs at all stages of the value chain such as production, packaging, loading / unloading, transport and conversion and is seen as the second biggest source of micro plastics that harm the environment. From a sustainability perspective, CurTec has decided to become a member of Operation Clean Sweep® (OCS) and formally commit itself to further reduce the loss of pellets, flakes and powder to zero.
For more than 25 years the plastics industry has promoted OCS, a campaign dedicated to helping every plastic resin handling operation achieve zero pellet, flake and powder loss. The Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) and the American Chemistry Council (ACC) invite companies to support OCS and ensure the principles of stewardship are embraced by everyone handling plastics materials.
Together with other Dutch plastic converters and through NRK (Dutch Federation of the Rubber and Plastics Industry), CurTec applied for membership of OCS. Last year, we conducted a site audit to identify all sources of pellet loss at CurTec. We then generated ideas to tackle these sources during a brainstorm.
This year, we committed ourselves to implementing three of those ideas:
- Collaborate with a recycler to ensure unusable plastic pellets are recycled instead of discarded as residual waste in our onsite recycling center.
- Optimize the material handling of our masterbatch in production
- Piloting a filter for our sewage system to avoid pellets flowing into the water ways and ocean.
During this year’s National Clean-up Day, we noticed a significant decrease in pellets, especially in our onsite recycling center. Due to the collaboration with a local recycler, we no longer have to tip the contents of our pellet collection bins into the residual waste container, avoiding pellets spilling on the ground and into our sewers.
