Environmentalists are re-upping their calls for restrictions on plastic pellet discharges following the release of the first-ever global attempt to collect and count the tiny particles.
Volunteers collected nearly 50,000 plastic pellets over an 11-day period this past spring, according to the International Plastic Pellet Count report published Wednesday. More than 85 percent of the pellets collected were in the U.S., with 23,115 pellets collected in Texas alone.
EPA could “play a critical role by strengthening and enforcing regulations that address plastic pellet pollution at its source through the Clean Water Act,” the report says.
“The fact that volunteers found nearly 50,000 pellets shows how easy it is for these tiny plastics to escape into our waterways during production, storage and transport,” said Lisa Frank, executive director of Environment America’s research and policy center. Environment America was one of six advocacy groups that worked on the cleanup and report.
