50 signatures reached
To: INEOS, chairman and founder, Jim Ratcliffe
REDESIGN plastic pellets/nurdles to reduce catastrophic impact when lost to the environment
Rethink the design of the pre-production plastic pellets that INEOS manufactures by the billions every year to stop further catastrophic global pollution through loss into the environment.
Why is this important?
INEOS is one of the world's biggest producers of plastic, in pellet or powder form. The pellets are about the size of a lentil and used as a raw material by plastic manufacturers who 'melt' them down to form the plastic goods we use.
During pellet manufacture at source, international transportation by vehicle or ship to global plastic manufacturing factories, devastating pellet spills occur. At all handling points on this journey, pellets are lost in transit. They are lost at sea from ships or at ports or factories using and moving the pellets to make their products. They find their way into our seas and oceans directly or escape from land via drains, watercourses and rivers.
The pellets are tiny and they float, looking tempting to all fish, birds, marine wildlife as potential food. Once eaten, the pellets remain in the stomach so that the creature falsely thinks it has fed. If enough are ingested, the digestive tract is blocked causing a slow and painful death. We have all seen the horrific images of wildlife suffering indescribable pain on BBC's 'Blue Planet.'
In June 2013, The Association of Plastics Manufacturers, noting that they 'take care,' declared (in their "Zero Pellet Loss" document) that "we should have zero tolerance for the loss of pellets anywhere anytime." The Scottish environmental charity 'Fidra' estimates that 53 billion plastic pellets are lost each year. To put this into scale, a 24-tonne ocean-going bulk ship can carry 1.5 billion tonnes of pellets.
We can no longer rely on 'beach cleans'by concerned, pro-active volunteers, myself included, to remove the pellets that wash up polluting beaches around the world. It is a totally unsustainable method of tackling this chronic and infinitely persistent global plastic pollution issue..
We must tackle this at source, INEOS. We demand an intelligent, decisive and effective immediate redesign of this pellet element within the manufacturing process of plastic.
This is the single origin of all plastic products. It is the base source of all that is plastic pollution in our world.
All the further plastic product pollution issues that reach beyond this fundamental and primary point in the supply chain, stems from the manufacture of pre-production plastic pellets.
You say that 'customer is king' INEOS however, demand for plastic goods is not coming from society, it comes from inefficient corporations who remain unmoved and in denial, not bold or wise enough to take a stance to seek alternatives to save our planet from the utter devastating future it faces. Protection of their precious easy production profit comes first.
As a global primary raw plastic producer and world leading chemical company , INEOS must take the lead. The future of world plastic recycling, production and pollution starts and rests here. Remove raw unrecyclable plastic at source now, stop producing it, force manufacturers to find immediate recyclable plastic alternatives for their products.
Initiate and instigate, be courageous, use only recycled plastic in your supply chain, provide only plastic that can be universally and continuously recycled by every county, state, province, city, country in the world. Do not supply any types of plastic that cannot be recycled now. Demand international support now from governments, law and policy makers to support this stance globally. If it is unrecyclable, it should not be made.
Redesign and rethink the pellet system for manufacture and stop this insidious, tiny uncontrollable pollutant seeping into our world and destroying the planet.
During pellet manufacture at source, international transportation by vehicle or ship to global plastic manufacturing factories, devastating pellet spills occur. At all handling points on this journey, pellets are lost in transit. They are lost at sea from ships or at ports or factories using and moving the pellets to make their products. They find their way into our seas and oceans directly or escape from land via drains, watercourses and rivers.
The pellets are tiny and they float, looking tempting to all fish, birds, marine wildlife as potential food. Once eaten, the pellets remain in the stomach so that the creature falsely thinks it has fed. If enough are ingested, the digestive tract is blocked causing a slow and painful death. We have all seen the horrific images of wildlife suffering indescribable pain on BBC's 'Blue Planet.'
In June 2013, The Association of Plastics Manufacturers, noting that they 'take care,' declared (in their "Zero Pellet Loss" document) that "we should have zero tolerance for the loss of pellets anywhere anytime." The Scottish environmental charity 'Fidra' estimates that 53 billion plastic pellets are lost each year. To put this into scale, a 24-tonne ocean-going bulk ship can carry 1.5 billion tonnes of pellets.
We can no longer rely on 'beach cleans'by concerned, pro-active volunteers, myself included, to remove the pellets that wash up polluting beaches around the world. It is a totally unsustainable method of tackling this chronic and infinitely persistent global plastic pollution issue..
We must tackle this at source, INEOS. We demand an intelligent, decisive and effective immediate redesign of this pellet element within the manufacturing process of plastic.
This is the single origin of all plastic products. It is the base source of all that is plastic pollution in our world.
All the further plastic product pollution issues that reach beyond this fundamental and primary point in the supply chain, stems from the manufacture of pre-production plastic pellets.
You say that 'customer is king' INEOS however, demand for plastic goods is not coming from society, it comes from inefficient corporations who remain unmoved and in denial, not bold or wise enough to take a stance to seek alternatives to save our planet from the utter devastating future it faces. Protection of their precious easy production profit comes first.
As a global primary raw plastic producer and world leading chemical company , INEOS must take the lead. The future of world plastic recycling, production and pollution starts and rests here. Remove raw unrecyclable plastic at source now, stop producing it, force manufacturers to find immediate recyclable plastic alternatives for their products.
Initiate and instigate, be courageous, use only recycled plastic in your supply chain, provide only plastic that can be universally and continuously recycled by every county, state, province, city, country in the world. Do not supply any types of plastic that cannot be recycled now. Demand international support now from governments, law and policy makers to support this stance globally. If it is unrecyclable, it should not be made.
Redesign and rethink the pellet system for manufacture and stop this insidious, tiny uncontrollable pollutant seeping into our world and destroying the planet.
