La Spanish Association of Plastics Manufacturers (ANAIP) and Plastics Europe, the pan-European association of plastic producers, have signed the renewal of the collaboration agreement Operation Clean Sweep® (SCO) signed in 2016. The event took place at the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, an administration that has been supporting this program since its inception in Spain.
Through this new agreement, business organizations undertake to continue promoting actions to make companies in the plastics supply chain aware of the impact that the loss of pellets has on the environment and of the need to implement good practices aimed at prevention and containment in its facilities and logistics operations. The OCS program was born to avoid possible involuntary leaks into the environment of pellets in any of the stages: production, handling, transport, transformation and recycling.
In these five years of commitment and close collaboration between both entities, More from 300 companies have joined the OCS program in Spain, and have implemented measures for the prevention and containment of pellets in their more than 400 facilities.
So that the commitment of the industry also translates into greater confidence on the part of society, ANAIP, in collaboration with AENOR and with the support of Plastics Europe, developed a pioneering scheme for SCO certification that allows the companies adhering to this initiative to be audited periodically by an accredited third party to verify that the conditions of the program are met. Currently, there are 27 companies that have obtained the AENOR OCS certificate.
Based on the Spanish scheme, now, Plastics Europe and EuPC, the European association of plastic transformers, are developing a certification scheme at European level to expand the number of certified companies.
From the beginning in Spain, the OCS program has had the institutional support of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge through the General Subdirectorate for the Protection of the Sea. This ministry recognizes the effort that the industry is making towards the objective of zero pellets in the environment and has shown its support for the program and has collaborated with organizations to accelerate the adhesion and certification of all companies.
