16.01.2024

Millions Of Plastic Pellets Wash Up On Spanish Beaches

Countless tiny plastic pellets are washing up on the shores of northern Spain and local authorities declared an environmental emergency on Tuesday after a shipping container fell off a transport vessel last month. The spill was first reported to authorities on Dec. 13 when hundreds of thousands of tiny white balls began washing up on Spain’s Atlantic shoreline. Spain’s government representative for the Galicia region said that the container ship Toconao, sailing under a Liberian flag, lost six shipping containers off the coast of Portugal, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) to the west of Viana do Castelo. One of the six containers contained 1,000 sacks of pellets, with each sack holding 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of the tiny plastic balls used in the fabrication of plastic products, the government representative said. Greenpeace and other environmental groups calculate the total amount of pellets lost to be in the millions. They say that the pellets represent a danger for marine and human life since they can break down into even smaller microplastics that can be consumed by fish that are later caught by fishermen. Volunteers and workers have organized to clean up the beaches and coasts of the area, which depends on a large fish and shellfish industry. The pellets act as sponges for toxins already in the water, turning them into toxic pills for any sea creature that eats them and entering the food chain that can reach human consumers. Credit: DW