Most microplastic in the environment arrives there by degradation: a bag, a bottle or a tyre breaks down over years into fragments too small to collect. Plastic pellets are the exception. They enter the environment already microplastic-sized, straight from industry, through spills at loading bays, transfer points and on the road. The EU has now regulated that pathway specifically. The regulation on preventing plastic pellet losses entered into force in December 2025, with most provisions applying two years later — and one milestone falling on 17 December 2026.
Why pellets are treated separately
A pellet is typically two to five millimetres across. That places it inside the microplastic definition from the moment it is manufactured, without any weathering. It is also buoyant, roughly spherical and highly mobile in water, which is why pellets turn up on beaches far from any industrial site.
What makes this pathway unusual in the microplastics debate is that it is entirely avoidable. Degradation of products in use is hard to stop without changing the products. Spilling raw material during handling is a containment problem, and containment problems have engineering solutions. That is precisely why regulators reached for it first: it is the microplastic source with the clearest relationship between action and outcome.
What the regulation requires
The rules cover the handling of pellets across the whole supply chain — producers, converters, logistics operators, warehouses and carriers — not only their manufacture.
The core duties apply regardless of size: avoid, contain and clean up any spills or losses, and establish and implement risk management plans matched to the nature and size of the installation. Obligations then scale with volume. Large and medium-sized companies handling more than 1,500 tonnes of pellets a year must obtain a certificate of compliance or a permit. Small companies and micro-enterprises face simplified requirements, with specific derogations and exemptions.
The measure is expected to reduce pellet losses by up to 74%. That figure comes from the impact assessment behind the legislation rather than from measured results, and is best read as the policy expectation.
The timetable
- 22 September 2025 — the Council signed off the regulation.
- December 2025 — entry into force, twenty days after publication in the Official Journal.
- 17 December 2026 — the Commission is to develop awareness-raising and training material and to request the European standardisation organisations to prepare harmonised standards for estimating quantities of losses.
- Two years after entry into force — most provisions start to apply, apart from specific derogations and exemptions.
The measurement problem
The December 2026 milestone deserves more attention than it usually gets. Until harmonised standards exist, “estimating losses” is not a defined exercise. A company that spills pellets does not weigh them; it observes that some were spilled. Converting that into a number requires a method, and today every operator choosing to measure is choosing its own.
This matters for the regulation’s credibility. A reduction target of up to 74% only means something against a baseline measured consistently. Without common standards, comparing one site’s performance with another’s — or one year with the next — rests on methodological choices rather than on what actually reached the environment.
What it does not cover
Pellet loss is one entry route for microplastics, not the dominant one. Tyre wear, textile fibres released in washing, paint and the fragmentation of products in use all contribute, and none of them is addressed here. This regulation is narrow by design.
That narrowness is also its strength. Broader microplastic questions are still open scientifically: EFSA accepted a mandate on 5 December 2025 to assess the health risks of microplastics in food, water and air, with the evaluation running to 31 December 2027, and states that it cannot yet conclude on potential health effects. Regulating a well-defined industrial pathway does not require waiting for that assessment. Regulating exposure in general does.
Frequently asked questions
Why are plastic pellets classed as microplastic?
A pellet is typically two to five millimetres across, which places it within the microplastic size definition from the moment it is manufactured, without any degradation. It is also buoyant and highly mobile in water.
Who must obtain a certificate under the pellet loss regulation?
Large and medium-sized companies handling more than 1,500 tonnes of plastic pellets a year require a certificate of compliance or a permit. Small companies and micro-enterprises face simplified requirements, with specific derogations and exemptions.
What has to happen by 17 December 2026?
By that date the Commission is to develop awareness-raising and training material and to request the European standardisation organisations to prepare harmonised standards for estimating the quantities of pellet losses.
Does the regulation address all sources of microplastics?
No. It targets pellet losses specifically. Tyre wear, textile fibres, paint and the fragmentation of products in use are not covered by this instrument.
Related reading: our microplastics coverage sets out the other pathways and what remains scientifically unsettled, while plastic recycling explains where in the process pellets are produced and handled. For the policy context, see the circular economy.
Sources: European Commission, announcement of the entry into force of the regulation on preventing plastic pellet losses (16 December 2025); Council of the European Union, press release of 22 September 2025; EFSA, microplastics and nanoplastics in food.
