What Are Nurdles – Burning Issues

Table of Contents

Nurdles

The worst toxic waste you’ve probably never heard of

What is Nurdles?

Nurdles, the colloquial term for “pre-production plastic pellets”, are the little-known building block for all our plastic products. The tiny beads can be made of polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride and other plastics.
Like crude oil, nurdles are highly persistent pollutants, and will continue to circulate in ocean currents and wash ashore for decades. They are also “toxic sponges”, which attract chemical toxins and other pollutants on to their surfaces.

Classified by the UN as Sri Lanka’s “worst maritime disaster”, the biggest impact was not caused by the heavy fuel oil nor was it the hazardous chemicals on board, which included nitric acid, caustic soda and methanol.
The most “significant” harm, according to the UN, came from the spillage of 87 containers full of lentil-sized plastic pellets:

Concern

Since the disaster, nurdles have been washing up in their billions along hundreds of miles of the country’s coastline, and are expected to make landfall across Indian Ocean coastlines from Indonesia and Malaysia to Somalia.
They are often mistaken for food by seabirds, fish and other wildlife. In the environment, they fragment into nanoparticles whose hazards are more complex.
They are the second-largest source of micropollutants in the ocean, by weight, after tyre dust. An astounding 230,000 tonnes of nurdles end up in oceans every year.
In some places they are up to 2 metres deep. They have been found in the bodies of dead dolphins and the mouths of fish.
About 1,680 tonnes of nurdles were released into the ocean. It is the largest plastic spill in history.
Released into the environment from plastic plants or when shipped around the world as raw material to factories, nurdles will sink or float, depending on the density of the pellets and if they are in freshwater or saltwater.
There are 20,000 families who have had to stop fishing.
The fishermen say when they dip [themselves] into the water, the pellets get into their ears. It’s affected tourism, everything.

How harmful are these??

The pellets themselves are a mixture of chemicals – they are fossil fuels.
But they act as toxic sponges. A lot of toxic chemicals, so they gather on the surface of microplastics.
Nurdles also act as “rafts” for harmful bacteria such as E coli or even cholera, transporting them from sewage outfalls and agricultural runoff to bathing waters and shellfish beds. The phenomenon of “plastic rafting” is increasing.

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.

Now environmentalists are joining forces with the Sri Lankan government in an attempt to turn the X-Press Pearl disaster into a catalyst for change.
The cleanup continues in Sri Lanka. Some of the 470 turtles, 46 dolphins and eight whales washing ashore have had nurdles in their bodies,

Other Incidents of Nurdle Spills

Suggestions

Classifying nurdles as hazardous – as is the case for explosives, flammable liquids and other environmentally harmful substances – would make them subject to strict conditions for shipping. “They must be stored below deck, in more robust packaging with clear labelling.”

Question:
Waste removal system was established in which of the following cities for the first time?
(a) Athens
(b) Lahore
(c) Paris
(d) London