On 8 December, in the vicinity of Viana do Castelo, about 1000 bags of 25 kilos with plastic or pellets, of the merchant ship Toconao, have appeared on the Galician coast. Although 52 sacks have already been found in almost the entire Galician coast, there are severely contaminated areas such as Paredes and the Ría de Noia. It is estimated that the number of plastic clips released in the accident ranges from 800 million to 1400 million. Driven by the irresponsibility of the Xunta for this problem, the Basque Government has begun to propose a series of measures. After predicting that AZTI researchers can reach our shores in weeks or months, Arantxa Tapia, from the Environment Department, has pointed out that “mechanisms of action” are being designed to capture them before reaching the coast. The prestige that the environmental crisis that has caused the accident and the fascination of people is acquiring seems to have come up with a completely new environmental issue. But is it?

“Pellets” are petroleum derived plastic polymers which are used as raw material for melting and producing different plastic objects. Plastic production grew enormously after the Second World War in the 1960s and 1970s, due to its properties and the low cost of its production. The first investigations on the contamination of plastic pines on the coast date back to 1972, but they have begun to proliferate in recent decades, thus completing the knowledge of microplastics.

In the Basque coast and in the Gulf of Bizkaia in general, the first studies on these pine nuts, together with those on microplastics, which are usually classified as microplastics, date from 2010. Since 2016, the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Environment, through the CEDEX organization, has published reports on pines and microplastics appearing on various beaches in the Spanish State, such as the Itzurun beach (Zumaia). The results are clear: the presence of pinport on all the beaches studied in the Gulf of Bizkaia has been remarkable in recent years.

A study by the research group IBeA of the University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea in 2023 shows that the presence of these plastic pine nuts is notable in the beaches of Sopelana and Gorliz. According to the report, sampling carried out in 2022 and 2023 shows that if we were to take a cube one centimeter deep, one meter wide and 200 meters long on the line left by the squid, it is estimated that at Atxabiribil beach in Sopelana there would be 6,000 piñones and 1,000 on the beach in Gorliz.

But where do these balls come from? Are they being systematically dumped or come from minor accidents? Who is responsible for these discharges? Why have we not talked about and proposed solutions so far? In the event that no further investigations are carried out and the problem is addressed, those who pour these clips may continue with impunity. In addition, talking only about pine nuts makes the problem much simpler in reality, because pine nuts account for just over a third of the microplastics that can be found on beaches, but there are also other forms in a much larger number.

Therefore, the reports clearly show that the problem of plastic pines is not something that comes from Galicia in general, as people believe. We know that the problems of pinport-shaped microplastics are here for at least eight years, and it is logical to think that decades have passed without knowing or wanting to know that these pine nuts were in our ecosystems. Until the serious accident of 8 December, there has been no significant initiative or any words heard by the authorities. Now, given the echo of the disaster, they must take the opportunity to show their apparent concern for the environment. Will the same be true of microplastics and nanoplastics in irregular fibres and forms which are already a serious problem for the authorities to take action?

Aritz Lapazaran Bidezabal, graduated in Chemistry and researcher in microplastics.