Operation Clean Sweep®
Preventing pellet loss in waterways and oceans
Plastics play a major role in improving our quality of life and boosting energy efficiency but, if they end up in waterways and oceans, they have a negative environmental impact.
Most plastic found in the oceans is ordinary post-consumer waste. However, an estimated 10% of it is dispersed during the production and processing of plastics. Mindful of what is at stake, plastics industry associations, including the World Plastics Council, have launched Operation Clean Sweep®, an international program with a particular focus on Asia. Its goal: to propose guidelines to help all players in the plastics industry — manufacturers, transporters, processors — follow good housekeeping and pellet containment practices, to prevent pellet loss in waterways and oceans.
As part of our contribution, through our involvement in the Plastics Europe association, Total:
- Leads the promotion of Operation Clean Sweep® to customers and distributors of the association;
- Pilots the audit guidelines for manufacturing norms and practices;
- Undertakes to demonstrate its exemplary leadership by year-end 2016.