Where are the Nurdles From?

Nurdles have been found all over British Columbia's coastline, harming ecosystems. But where are they coming from?

First of all, what are nurdles?  Nurdles are small pellet like plastics. They are the raw material for almost every plastic product on Earth. Factories around the world melt them down and form them into new shapes. Nurdles come in many shapes and colours. It is estimated that over 113 billion kilograms of nurdles are manufactured and shipped every year.  

How do nurdles impact the environment? As nurdles are shipped across the globe, many of the tiny pellets find their way out of their containers and into the ocean. The little bits of plastic soak up any toxins around them. The nurdles also frequently look like fish eggs to a variety of organisms. The nurdles can’t be digested and end up sitting in the organism’s stomach making it think it is full, ending up starving them. The toxins in the nurdles don’t help.

Nurdle Video. Ted Ed is great.

Where are nurdles found? Nurdles are discovered all over the world, travelling by cargo ships and currents. In BC, they are mostly found in southern BC waters and on the Fraser River. This is a handy map of where nurdles have been found. 

So… where are they coming from? Most of the nurdles found in BC are likely coming from several plastic manufacturing sites along the Fraser River. Many nurdles are spilled while being transported to and from those sites. The plastic industry in general doesn’t do a good job cleaning up the spills, letting the nurdles get into storm drains and then into the Fraser River.

What can we do? Unfortunately, once nurdles get into the ocean, it is very hard to get them back out. So the best solution currently is to prevent spills from reaching the ocean. A very easy way to stop nurdles from getting into storm drains is to install storm drain covers at places where nurdles are spilled, like the plastic manufacturing sites.

What else? Raising awareness about the problems nurdles are causing can help pressure companies to have better protocols to deal with hurdle transportation and spills. Lowering the use of plastics will also lower the number of nurdles travelling all over the world.