On 16 October 2023 the European Commission presented a Regulation proposal to tackle the unintentional release of microplastics from plastic pellet which is considered one of the main sources of microplastic releases apart from tires and textiles.
An Impact assessment was included in the Commission proposal, and it refers to data gaps and to other legislative proposals currently being negotiated. These would allow specific measures to be taken on all other identified sources. More information is available on Q&A and brochure, where it is also mentioned the Cross Industry Agreement.
EURATEX Position
• Scaling up of data and research to identify the significant areas of releases
• Building on the Cross Industry Agreement test methods actions
• Introduction of standards for sampling and analysing microplastics
