Mastodawn

Rye, #England
Workers from the environmental cleanup group #Nurdle use a machine to remove thousands of tiny #plastic #biobeads from Camber Sands beach. Southern Water has taken responsibility for the catastrophic spill that polluted the Sussex coastline.

Photograph: Andrew Aitchison/In Pictures/Getty Images

#photography
#pollution
#beach

Fiona Grahame Orkney News Ltd Jun 13, 2025

Stories of #Nurdle Pollution

They might have a cute sounding name, but nurdles are a threat to the marine environment, and to our own health. The tiny plastic pellets disappear into the food chain, 'more and more studies are finding that microplastics, defined as plastic pieces less than 5 millimetres across, are also in our bodies.' Fidra, the environmental charity, has published reports on two major nurdle pollution events which have spilled the tiny plastic pellets…

https://theorkneynews.scot/2025/06/13/stories-of-nurdle-pollution/

Stories of #Nurdle Pollution

They might have a cute sounding name, but nurdles are a threat to the marine environment, and to our own health. The tiny plastic pellets disappear into the food chain, ‘more and more studies…

The Orkney News

Bill Spunska Jul 24, 2023

Word of the day: NURDLE

Nurdle is ‘the colloquial term for “pre-production plastic pellets”. . . the building blocks for all our plastic products. The tiny beads can be made of polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride and other plastics.’

“The pellets themselves are a mixture of chemicals – they are fossil fuels,” says Tom Gammage, at the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an international campaign group. “But they act as toxic sponges. A lot of toxic chemicals . . . are hydrophobic [repel water], so they gather on the surface of microplastics.”

Nurdles also act as “rafts” for harmful bacteria such as E coli or even cholera, one study found, transporting them from sewage outfalls and agricultural runoff to bathing waters and shellfish beds. Yet nurdles, unlike substances such as kerosene, diesel and petrol, are not deemed hazardous under the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO’s) dangerous goods code for safe handling and storage. This is despite the threat to the environment from plastic pellets being known about for three decades, as detailed in a 1993 report from the US government’s Environmental Protection Agency on how the plastics industry could reduce spillages.’

Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/29/nurdles-plastic-pellets-environmental-ocean-spills-toxic-waste-not-classified-hazardous

#nurdle #plastic

Nurdles: the worst toxic waste you’ve probably never heard of

Billions of these tiny plastic pellets are floating in the ocean, causing as much damage as oil spills, yet they are still not classified as hazardous

The Guardian