Nurdles Are Everywhere, But Still Largely Unregulated
They’re polluting our ecosystems, spreading toxins, and slipping through oversight gaps.
Small, round, and easily overlooked, nurdles are polluting coastlines worldwide. These plastic pellets serve as the raw material for manufacturing a wide range of products, from bottles to car bumpers. They are increasingly ending up in places they don’t belong: our lagoons, estuaries, and the Pacific Ocean.
Last spring, the Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation (CERF) and San Diego Coastkeeper filed a formal Notice of Intent to Sue BNSF Railroad Company under the Clean Water Act, citing repeated pellet discharges into San Diego County’s coastal ecosystems. No one is taking responsibility for cleaning up these pellets, despite their increasing presence and growing damage.
What are Nurdles?
Nurdles are the building blocks of plastic. Petrochemical companies like Dow, ExxonMobil, Shell, and Formosa manufacture them before shipping them, often internationally, via cargo ship or train. These pellets are then melted into a range of products for packaging, the automotive industry, construction, and consumer goods.
Nurdles in a polypropylene bag, commonly used in the plastics industry to transport pellets by the ton.
This system, however, is deeply flawed. Nurdles spill at various points during manufacturing and transport. Because they are not labeled as hazardous materials, they are often shipped without proper containment. Once released, they pose a significant threat to the environment.
They do not biodegrade. Instead, they absorb and release toxic chemicals such as DDT, PCBs, and mercury, which can interfere with natural bodily systems even at low levels. In the wild, nurdles are often mistaken for food by fish, seabirds, and marine mammals. This not only harms the animals that ingest them directly, but also introduces these toxins into the broader food chain, ultimately posing a risk to other wildlife and to humans who consume contaminated seafood.
A Global Crisis
This issue stretches beyond California. In 2021, the largest recorded spill occurred off the coast of Sri Lanka, when 1,680 tons of nurdles entered the ocean. Just this May, millions of nurdles washed up on the shores of Kerala, India. Globally, an estimated 230,000 metric tons of nurdles enter the ocean each year.
San Diego’s Silent Spills
In San Diego County, nurdles are arriving both from the ocean and the coastal train corridors. In Spring 2024, volunteers and local organizations, including Trash4Tokens and Surfrider, documented plastic pellets not only along our beaches but also beside the railroad tracks that border sensitive ecological zones and coastal communities.
Nurdles found along the edge of Batiquitos Lagoon, Carlsbad on February 12, 2024.
These spaces are home to a diverse range of fish, birds, marine mammals, and endangered species. Nurdles are contaminating the very spaces that serve as natural buffers to climate change and the impacts of urban development.
From Awareness to Accountability
Organizations across the globe are calling for stricter oversight. In California and internationally, this includes classifying nurdles as a hazardous material. Advocates are pushing for enforceable standards around spill prevention, containment, and clean-up for every company handling these pellets, whether by land or sea.
Meanwhile, community-driven science and data collection continue and play a vital role. The first annual California National Nurdle Hunt pushed to help groups document sightings, share information, and clean up where possible.
However, in the long run, cleanup is not enough. Unless companies are held accountable and required to prevent spills at the source, coastal ecosystems and the communities that rely on and enjoy them will continue to bear the cost.
If you spot a nurdle in the wild, please help us document it here. By spreading the word, you can help be a part of the solution!
Sawyer Patten- CERF Intern
