A nurdle, also called a pre-production plastic pellet or plastic resin pellet, is a plastic pellet typically under 5 mm (0.20 in) in diameter. They are an intermediate good used to produce plastic final products.[1]
Approximately 60 billion pounds (27 million tonnes) of nurdles are manufactured annually in the United States alone.[2] One pound of pelletized HDPE contains approximately 25,000 nurdles (approximately 20 mg per nurdle).[3]
Environmental impact
Nurdles are a major contributor to marine debris. During a three month study of Orange County beaches researchers found them to be the most common beach contaminant.[4] Nurdles comprised roughly 98% of the beach debris collected in a 2001 Orange County study.[5] Waterborne nurdles, may either be a byproduct of plastic production or pellets broken down from larger chunks of plastic.[6] Ocean currents carry large quantities of plastic debris to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Nurdles that escape from the plastic production process into waterways or oceans have become a significant source of ocean and beach pollution. Nurdles have frequently been found in the digestive tracts of various marine creatures, causing physiological damage by leaching plasticizers[7] such as phthalates[citation needed]. Nurdles can carry two types of micropollutants in the marine environment: native plastic additives and hydrophobic pollutants absorbed from seawater[citation needed]. Concentrations of PCBs and DDE on nurdles collected from Japanese coastal waters were found to be up to 1 million times higher than the levels detected in surrounding seawater.[citation needed]
References
- ^ What's a nurdle?, 7 November 2006, archived from the original on 2009-12-21, http://www.webcitation.org/5mCCdKBcf, retrieved 2009-12-21.
- ^ Heal the Bay | The Pacific Protection Initiative | AB 258: Nurdles
- ^ City on a Hill Press - UC Santa Cruz's Student-Run Newspaper
- ^ Moore, Charles (2002). "A comparison of neustonic plastic and zooplankton abundance in southern California’s coastal waters and elsewhere in the North Pacific". Algalita Marine Research Foundation. http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Marine-Debris-Panel30oct02.htm.
- ^ "Adopted Marine Debris Resolution"
- ^ Ayre, Maggie (2006). "Plastics 'poisoning world's seas'". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6218698.stm.
- ^ Weisman, Alan (July 10, 2007). "9". The World Without Us. Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 978-0312347291.
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