STORY: Perez added that the Ribeira town hall would not be able to deal with the crisis alone and asked for national help.
The incident triggered environmental concerns and a political blame game.
The pellets, which are used to produce everyday items from water bottles to shopping bags and are known to add to the problem of plastic making its way into the world’s oceans and rivers, came from at least one container that fell from the Toconao – a Liberia-registered vessel chartered by shipping giant Maersk off the coast of neighbouring Portugal last month, the pellets’ manufacturer Bedeko Europe said in a statement.
Deputy Prime Minister Maria Jesus Montero told state broadcaster TVE the government was worried of possibly “serious repercussions” but did not yet know the exact impact and whether it would affect fishing.
An estimated 10 trillion plastic pellets contaminate marine ecosystems every year, a 2020 report by the Pew Charitable Trusts found.
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