Operation Clean Sweep Brings Focus to Eliminating Plastic Pellet Loss
Operation Clean Sweep, a stewardship program of the Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) and the American Chemistry Council’s Plastics Division, is dedicated to helping the industry implement good pellet containment practices to achieve the industry goal of zero pellet, flake, and powder discharge. First adopted in North America, this now international initiative expanded into Europe in 2015.
Operation Clean Sweep’s methodology has already helped plastics companies worldwide implement corrective actions. Companies who sign the OCS pledge commit to the following:
- Improve worksite set-up to prevent and address spills.
- Create and publish internal procedures to achieve zero industrial plastic material loss.
- Provide employee training and accountability for spill prevention, containment, clean-up, and disposal.
- Audit performance regularly
- Comply with all applicable state and local regulations governing industrial plastics containment
- Encourage partners to pursue the same goals
The Vinyl Sustainability Council (VSC), founded in 2016 in partnership with the Vinyl Institute (VI), is a council created to advance the vinyl industry’s efforts in addressing sustainability. Based on an industry stakeholder materiality assessment, the VSC focuses its efforts in three impact categories–Resource Efficiency, People & Communities, and Emissions–as part of its +Vantage Vinyl verification program. The Emissions Impact Category, strives to reduce emissions for air, water, soil, and biodiversity. As a result, in 2020 the VI signed on to Operation Clean Sweep and is working with member companies to achieve the program’s commitments.
+Vantage Vinyl verified members Westlake, Formosa, Occidental, ExxonMobil, GEON, Lubrizol, and Vestolit are recognized for their membership and participation in OCS. Occidental and ExxonMobil are also members within OCS Blue – a new membership offering for current OCS members with an enhanced commitment to management, measurement, and reporting of unrecovered plastic releases.
