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What’s the Deal With: Nurdles?

Small balls, big problems

By Julia Lerner Staff Reporter

Plastic is everywhere: shops, restaurants, offices, homes. Now, it’s washing up on the beaches, too. Tiny, colorful plastic pellets known as “nurdles” are showing up on shores across the United States, including in the Pacific Northwest. 

Billions of these little plastic pellets are used as raw material in manufactured plastic products each year. Even more wind up in our waterways during transport, with about 200,000 metric tons (around 53 billion pellets) of nurdles finding their way into oceans annually, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Nurdles are harmful to the environment, leaching toxic chemicals from microplastics into the water. The pellets look almost indistinguishable from fish roe and are often mistaken for food by marine wildlife like fish and seabirds. 

Various colors and shapes of Nurdles, fishing beads, airsoft pellets, seeds, and broken plastic are separated into groups.
Nurdles look almost indistinguishable from fish roe, and can look similar to other non-natural items in the environment, too. (Photo courtesy of Nurdle Patrol)

Nurdles have been identified on beaches around the Salish Sea, as well as in rivers in Skagit County. Groups like the Nurdle Patrol out of the University of Texas are tracking evidence of nurdles around the country through citizen science data collection projects, and encourage locals to collect nurdles and other plastics off the beaches and shores. 

You can report any nurdles to the Nurdle Patrol at nurdlepatrol.org/report.

WTD runs on Wednesdays. Have a suggestion for a “What’s the Deal With?” inquiry? Email us at newstips@cascadiadaily.com.

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