Pellets have come into the public eye due to the white tide detected on the Galician coast, a pollution episode investigated by the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office. But these tiny plastic balls are an old and annoying acquaintance on the Costa Daurada, an enemy denounced by several environmental organizations, the residents of the area and the Vila-seca (Tarragonès) City Council.
La Pineda beach is one of the beaches in Europe with the most pellet pollution. A sad record. “Two world records for pellet collection were broken in 2021 (700,000) and 2022 (two million)”, recalls Jordi Oliva, co-founder of Good Karma Projects. Total cleaning is technically unfeasible. The key is to stop the spills at source.
Good Karma Projects leads, together with the Surfrider Foundation, the fight against pellets, and has focused on the Costa Daurada and also on the Balearic Islands, where part of the pollution detected on the coast ends.
The record for La Pineda beach is no accident. It is because of the geographical location, next to the petrochemical estate, near the port of Tarragona and in the area of ??influence of the Francolí river. A perfect storm that attracted the interest of global environmental groups more than five years ago.
Public complaints have been repeated since 2018, before the media and competent bodies, such as the Tarragona Environmental Prosecutor’s Office. Interest in general has been low, despite efforts, especially by ecologists, to visualize the pollution problem: the pellets do not just pollute the sand (it is estimated that only 10% of the total discharges reach the sand ) and seawater and rivers, also pose a detriment to marine fauna and health. Fish inadvertently swallow them and the meat ends up in the food chain.
What has happened in Galicia and the memory of Chapapote (2002) have now given the coast of Tarragona an opportunity to demand solutions. Environmentalists have been focusing on Brussels for some time. more pressure
After years of complaints, the only result so far is the recent opening by the Generalitat of thirteen information files on companies, most located in the chemical estates of Tarragona.
The files, still in the research and evidence collection phase, will try to prove a priori what ecologists have been trying to prove for years with the collaboration of the Vila-seca City Council: the origin of the pellets.
These are millimetric plastic balls that the industry uses as raw material. The producers of pellets and plastics, under the spotlight, emphasize that the problem is the value chain, the companies that transport, store and handle them.
Part of the chemical industry created in 2023 with the Generalitat a platform (Zero Pellets) to fight against leaks in Tarragona. “There are companies that take it seriously and others that don’t. We feel a lot of powerlessness”, insists Pere Segura, mayor of Vila-seca, critical of the Government’s role and outraged that his municipality is not part of Zero Pèl·lets. “We have been reporting it for many, many years”, he adds.
The small size and the negligence on the part of the companies explain the constant leaks.
Repsol is one of the most active companies in trying to “minimize the involuntary loss of pellets”. It is also one of the thirteen companies filed by Climate Action. “We will continue to work on it, it is not acceptable that there are losses to the environment”, answered Jesús Sancho, director of the Repsol complex in Tarragona, on Thursday, about the pellets.
