Tom Wolfe, father of the new American journalism, is credited with one of the phrases that summarizes the social consideration that has been had in many moments of the profession: “Don’t tell my mother I’m a journalist, she thinks I’m a pianist in a brothel“.
Luis Cedielgeneral director of the Spanish Association of Plastics Industries (Anaip), uses the quote to explain what workers in the sector feel, who, often due to ignorance or the “punishment” inflicted by the political class, do not have the approval of society: “Don’t tell them to my mother who works in the plastics industry…”, he says ironically and laughing.
This Sunday, December 8, It is one year since the Liberian ship Toconao lost six containers with a total of 26 tons of pellets that ended up on the coast of Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country and, above all, Galicia. A term with which society was little familiar then emerged, pellet (raw material with which plastic products are manufactured), and the material was once again in the spotlight of the population and institutions.
The harmful effects that plastic dumping has on the environment are well known, but the fact that, according to Cadiel, referring to the latest Environmental Accounts Report of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), is not so well known, Of the 115.4 million tons of waste generated that year, only 953,800 correspond to plastic0.8% of the total.
In first position are the mineralswhich represent 40.8%, followed by mixed waste (34.7%), animal and vegetable waste (8.3%), metal waste (5.2%), paper and cardboard (3.4% ), chemicals (2.2%), discarded equipment (1.4%), glass (1.1%) and wood (0.9%).
However, from January 1, 2023 the plastic industry has to pay a tax of 0.45 euros per kilogram of non-recycled plastic, a tax rate that is not paid by the two countries that produce the largest amount of this component in the EU (Germany and France), according to Cadiel in the first days organized by Anaip to give learn about the industry’s work on the circular economy. “We are the representatives of the transformation and recycling that companies promote,” says the general director of the association.
A paradox: industry gets ahead of politics
The tax on plastic production imposed by the Government of Spain aims to encourage sustainable work in the industry. The tax rate pumped into public coffers a total of 663 million euros in 2023200 million more than the Ministry of Finance had initially anticipated it would collect.
Meantime, Spain is the only country in the European Union in which this tax has materialized permanently despite the fact that there is a commitment on the part of the large producing nations to establish it. Italy, third in the rankinghas postponed its application up to seven times; and Germany has committed, in principle, to implementing it from 2025 after another series of postponements.
The paradox that occurs in this case is that it has been the industry that has been ahead of the political class when it comes to promoting measures that minimize its negative impact on the environment. Therefore, the sector, which provides direct employment to 83,217 peopleregrets that the government’s response is the imposition of a tax that “burdens Spain’s competitiveness with respect to other countries that produce even more,” says Luis Cadiel to 20 minutes.
There is a clear example of this maxim: in 2016, Anaip acquired the license to establish in our country the Operation Clean Sweep program (OCS), an initiative originating in the United States focused on any sector of activity that handles pellets to avoid involuntary emissions into the environment that can occur at any point in the plastics value and supply chain.
This initiative, although it was welcomed by the Government, It did not receive official support from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition until five years laterin 2021. Currently, a total of 521 companies are members of the OCS program, that is, they have expressed their willingness to establish measures in their factories that contribute to minimizing their discharges. Of them, 61 already have the certificate.
Identification of critical points in factories
Spanish companies were the first in Europe to obtain OCS certification. In fact, in 2019, Anaip published a scheme that served as the basis for Plastics Europe (the association that represents raw materials manufacturers on the continent) to establish the program at the European level.
Basically, the initiative consists of companies carrying out an internal audit to locate your critical points and find solutions to the pellet losses that may occur during the respective processes.
These measures can range from the simplest, such as placing brooms and dustpans in these critical points, to more elaborate ones, whether it is the use of technology to clean plants with industrial robots or the installation of cameras that record possible escapes and send warning signals.
However, the main objective of the Spanish Association of Plastics Industries is now to make its work known to the population “transformative and sustainable” in relation to this component and reverse the negative view that is held of it.
In addition to being one of the materials with the longest useful life that exists, concludes Luis Candiel, it is essential, for example, for the manufacture of materials that in the last four years have been capital. “During the pandemic we saw it: masks, respirators were needed… products whose creation requires plastic“.