opcleansweep

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Jan. 30, 2025) — The Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) and the American Chemistry Council (ACC) have announced the launch of Operation Clean Sweep® (OCS) Logistics Verification, a facility-level inspection program designed exclusively for OCS Logistics members. Building upon the success of OCS Blue Verification, the program has been expanded with the goal of applying a rigorous model to prevent resin loss to the critical ‘middle’ of the supply chain—trucking companies, transloading companies, distributors, warehouses, and service providers. OCS Logistics Verification ensures that more than 25 required management practices to prevent resin loss have been successfully implemented at the facility level.

“The new OCS Logistics Verification program represents a significant increase in the strength and transparency of the plastics industry’s efforts to prevent resin loss,” said PLASTICS’ President and CEO Matt Seaholm. “By proactively verifying their operations, OCS Logistics members are demonstrating their leadership and continued commitment to protecting the environment and advancing sustainability throughout our industry.”

“America’s Plastic Makers, represented by ACC’s Plastics Division, have led the charge to be good stewards in resin management, taking significant steps to increase transparency and knowledge sharing that help create safer, cleaner communities in the U.S.,” said America’s Plastic Makers President Ross Eisenberg. “The OCS Logistics Verification Program strengthens our collective efforts to prevent plastic resin loss, ensuring these valuable materials stay in the supply chain and out of the environment. By embracing this verification process, industry leaders are demonstrating accountability and driving meaningful progress for businesses, consumers, and our planet.”

“Savage is proud to participate in the OCS Logistics Verification Program, which further strengthens our ability to prevent the loss of plastic pellets and resins across our operations,” said Troy Savage, Senior Vice President and Group Leader, Rail and Terminals at Savage. “We handle significant quantities of plastic pellets and resins at our transload terminals and other rail facilities, and we’ve made critical infrastructure investments in our loading areas to prevent product loss. By doing the right thing, finding a better way, and making a difference for our customers, team members, and communities, we’re committed to ensuring these materials are properly handled throughout the supply chain.”

“Preventing plastic resin loss across the logistics chain is vital to advancing environmental sustainability and reducing carbon footprints—key priorities of TALKE’s mission for Crafting Responsible Logistics,” said Richard Heath, President & CEO at TALKE. “The newly developed OCS Logistics Verification framework supports this mission by offering a structured process to evaluate resin loss performance, enhance containment efficiency, and achieve world-class OCS standards. This framework ensures measurable, long-term progress in sustainability efforts, benefiting both the industry and society.”

“Resin loss is a critical issue for our industry,” says John Labrie, CEO of Quantix. “As we increase reliance on plastic and in turn, the production of resin, we need to focus on securing that product at every stage of the supply chain. Product loss is about more than just the money. Our customers set aggressive sustainability goals. As a key partner of their supply chain, their goals become our goals, and you simply cannot provide high quality service like we do without deep consideration for your customer’s product.”

This program is exclusively available to OCS Logistics members to verify critical resin loss prevention practices have been successfully implemented at logistics facilities and during the transportation of plastic resin between sites. All OCS Logistics members are required to complete at least one verification inspection by December 31, 2025. Subsequent inspections are required at additional facilities in the first full verification cycle starting in 2026.

The program complements OCS Blue Verification, launched in September 2023, to address resin loss prevention practices at material suppliers and processors, ensuring accountability across the supply chain.

To provide additional information about the program, Operation Clean Sweep® will host a webinar in February 2025. PLASTICS and ACC encourage OCS Logistics members to register for the webinar and reach out to info@opcleansweep.org for additional information.

Operation Clean Sweep was founded by the Plastics Industry Association in 1991 and is managed in partnership with the American Chemistry Council’s Plastics Division. The industry-led program is dedicated to helping companies move toward zero plastic resin loss and is active in more than 60 countries worldwide. OCS members in the U.S. represent a diversity of the plastics value chain, ranging from companies making and distributing plastic, to transportation companies moving plastic, and processors manufacturing final products.               

The Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) is the only organization that supports the entire plastics supply chain, including Equipment Suppliers, Material Suppliers, Processors, and Recyclers, representing over one million workers in our $519 billion U.S. industry. PLASTICS advances the priorities of our members who are dedicated to investing in technologies that improve capabilities and advances in recycling and sustainability and providing essential products that allow for the protection and safety of our lives. Since 1937, PLASTICS has been working to make its members, and the eighth largest U.S. manufacturing industry, more globally competitive while supporting circularity through educational initiatives, industry-leading insights and events, convening opportunities and policy advocacy, including the largest plastics trade show in the Americas, NPE: The Plastics Show.

The American Chemistry Council’s Plastics Division represents America’s Plastic Makers^SM plus the half million+ scientists, engineers, technicians, and other innovators who make plastics for many essential and lifesaving products that are vital to modern life. America’s Plastic Makers continue to embrace change. We’re linking innovation with sustainability, deploying next generation technologies to make plastics lighter, stronger, more efficient and more recyclable, so we can meet our goal for 100% of U.S. plastic packaging to be reused, recycled, or recovered by 2040. We’re making sustainable change to help build a cleaner, safer, more sustainable future for generations to come. 

Charlotte Dreizen
PLASTICS Director, Sustainability and Environment

Now, more than ever, it’s important for industry to set ambitious goals towards achieving zero plastic resin loss and simultaneously demonstrate that strong practices are in place to prevent loss of resin into the environment. That’s why in six short months, Operation Clean Sweep® (OCS) will launch a new facility-level verification program that brings an expanded level of rigor and transparency to OCS Blue, its most robust tier of membership.

Through OCS Blue Verification, companies will be able to show stakeholders, from customers to shareholders to regulators, that strategies to prevent and mitigate plastic resin loss have been successfully implemented across facilities. Read on to learn more about how the OCS Blue Verification program, applicable to any plastic resin-handling operation in the U.S., will work and can add value to your company.

How was the OCS Blue Verification program developed?

Starting in 2021, a diverse group of OCS Blue members and industry experts spanning the country developed the OCS Blue Verification program, including material suppliers, processors, service providers, and transportation companies. This process included multiple pilots at OCS Blue member companies to help understand how inspections worked in practice and incorporate feedback into the program’s development.

Who can participate in OCS Blue Verification?

OCS Blue Verification will be exclusively available to OCS Blue member companies in the United States.

Will OCS Blue Verification be required for all OCS Blue members?

Once OCS Blue Verification is launched in 2024, all OCS Blue members will be required to participate.

How will verification cycles work for OCS Blue Verification?

OCS Blue Verification’s first cycle will run for two years, from January 2024 through December 2025. Future verification cycles will be three years, starting with the 2026 through 2028 cycle, to align with the timing of international OCS inspection programs.

How many facilities will be required to achieve OCS Blue Verification?

In each verification cycle, OCS Blue members must verify a certain number of their facilities, based on the overall number of eligible facilities in their portfolio, divided into three tiers. A facility is eligible if it handles more than one ton of plastic resin per year.

For companies that do not have a total number of facilities evenly divisible by the percentage, the number of facilities will be rounded up. For example, if an OCS Blue member has five facilities, two will be required to achieve verification in each cycle. If a member has one facility, that facility will be required to secure verification in each cycle.

The facilities required to become verified in each cycle are considered a minimum and, if a member chooses, they may verify more than the required minimum or all of their facilities in a given cycle. However, this does not impact the number of facilities required to achieve verification in future verification cycles.

If my company joins OCS Blue, will we have to participate in OCS Blue Verification right away?

Depending on the point in the verification cycle at which your company joins OCS Blue, your company may be required to participate in OCS Blue Verification in the current verification cycle. For companies that join in the first half of a verification cycle, participating in OCS Blue Verification for the current cycle will be required. For companies joining past the half-way point in the verification cycle, participating in OCS Blue Verification may begin in the following verification cycle.

Does my company select which facilities will achieve OCS Blue Verification in each cycle?

OCS Blue members select which facilities will be inspected for OCS Blue Verification. The program recommends that members select a mix of facilities based on geography, size, and function.

How will an OCS Blue Verification inspection work?

An OCS Blue member will contract directly with an approved OCS Blue Verifier to conduct an OCS Blue Verification inspection. The OCS Blue Verification inspection can be conducted in a stand-alone manner, scheduled alongside a Responsible Care® or ISO inspection, or integrated into certain environmental management system audits including RCMS:2019, RC14001, RCMS:2023, RC14001:2023, or ISO14001:2015.

Once scheduled, a company will provide preliminary background information to the inspector, in advance, on management practices. During the on-site OCS Blue Verification inspection, implementation of 29 required management practices in five categories will be assessed. These management practices are outlined in the forthcoming OCS Blue Verification Framework.

If implementation of required management practices is successfully confirmed, the OCS Blue Verifier will notify the OCS program. For any gaps in implementation observed, the member must submit a Nonconformance Response to the OCS Blue Verifier within 60 days that successfully demonstrates resolution of the gap.

What happens after a facility achieves OCS Blue Verification?

For every facility that becomes OCS Blue Verified, a Certificate of Verification will be provided, and the facility will be added to a public registry of verified facilities. These achievements can be shared in your company’s annual sustainability report and ESG reporting, as well as with customers and stakeholders.

Which inspectors should our company use to do the on-site inspection?

Companies can hire approved OCS Blue Verifiers to conduct an OCS Blue Verification inspection. To become an approved OCS Blue Verifier, an inspector must complete the OCS Blue Verifier training and meet certain eligibility requirements. OCS Blue Verifier Training will be offered to inspectors starting in August 2023 on a monthly basis through the launch of OCS Blue Verification and on a periodic basis thereafter.

Please reach out to ocs@plasticsindustry.org if you would like to refer an inspector to the OCS Blue Verification Training program or for complete OCS Blue Verifier eligibility requirements.

I have additional questions. How can I get them answered?

If you would like to discuss OCS Blue Verification further or explore OCS Blue membership, please reach out to ocs@plasticsindustry.org. The OCS team will be happy to answer questions, share information on future OCS Blue Verification webinars for members to learn more, and let you know when the official OCS Blue Verification Framework and Guide to OCS Blue Verification become available.