by Delaney White / Fox5 / October 15, 2024
Whether it’s sunglasses, a water bottle, or a TV remote, almost everything is made out of plastic. But how is most plastic assembled?
“It’s easier to ship a lot of something very small instead of big pieces, so they’re made into these little nurdles,” said Mark O’Connor, Surfrider Foundation’s “Rise Above Plastics” program co-lead.
They are transported around the world by trains and boats and then melted into their final form. But many nurdles do not make it to their intended destination. Instead, they end up on San Diego’s beaches.
“The first time you’re like, ‘Oh, I’ve never seen one!’ And then you see one. All of a sudden they just start popping up. You can’t not see them,” O’Connor said.
“When I realized there were some right here in Carlsbad where I clean the beach just down the street, that was pretty surprising to me,” said Janis Jones, the program’s co-lead.
Jones says a large number of nurdles are spilling out of train cars during shipping, eventually making their way to the beach.
“In this one small area, I couldn’t even begin to count them,” said Jones in front of the Carlsbad train station.
The Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act is legislation introduced by Congressman Mike Levin that would tighten regulations on shipping plastic. However, some advocates say the current legislation needs more work.
“It’s not saying that the IMDG code for nurdles needs to be changed to hazardous material,” said Clare Swithenbank-Bowman, the founder of Trash4Tokens and Litter4Tokens.
Swithenbank-Bowman is pushing for the draft to include a hazardous material classification for nurdles in order to prevent spills, but without that amendment…
“It wouldn’t stop it because they’re not going to be in sealed containers like oil,” said Swithenbank-Bowman.
For safety reasons, advocates are asking the public not to try to pick up nurdles in the area by the train tracks, but to do so at the beach.
It needs to be determined who the importers/transporter of mermaids tears into/out of San Diego County are, particularly since there are no plastic manufactures who would utilize these fossil fuel based petrochemical plastic resin pellets. When they are near the train tracks, there is a clear indication of transport over the rail system, while those on the beach are indicative of cargo losses at sea. Plastics present major human and environmental health concerns globally – whether in microplastic form or in the form of the largest plastic product made – synthetic turf. San Diego County and City have ignored these issues far too long, right down to their Climate Action Plan. The chemicals that leach from plastics to soil, air and water is significant, as is the contribution to climate change. Associated health care costs globally are in the $Billions annually. WAKE UP, SAN DIEGO. Information is in your public records…reducing your defense in the case(s) of law suits.
Dianne Woelke MSN
Board Member
Safehealthyplayingfields.org
501-c-3
I want to echo what Dianne Woelke has said . Plastics from their production to their transport and disposal are a major environmental and health hazard that we’ve been taught to ignore but can no longer. These plastic nurdles are just one of those insidious pollution problems. Plastic ‘synthetic
turf’ carpeting adds high heat in addition to shedding colored toxin laden plastics bits and fibers (PFAS and phthalates are just two of the toxics) when used as surfacing for sports fields and playgrounds. Granulated tires, laden with VOCs , heavy metals and toxic chemicals, when dumped on top of the synturf carpets or glued together for playgrounds, adds to the toxic load as it rolls off and is ground into tire waste dust. Time to end the ignorance about plastics overall health impacts and the toxic Trojan horses exemplified by plastic turf . synthetic
WHOA ! Years ago I drove to Phoenix from Yuma to pick up residential plastic trash containers. While my truck was being loaded I was given a tour of the plant to see how the containers were made. Plastic beads were poured into a mold. That mold was heated and spun at high rpm. As the beads melted the centrifugal force forced the melted plastic into the shape of the mold. After it cooled the container was dumped out and the excess plastic was trimmed off. I asked the manager what happened to the excess trimmed plastic and the beads that spilled onto the floor. He said they were swept up and used to made more containers. I thought that was good recycling. But after reading the article on “nurdles” I see now that more work needs to be done on environmental plastic contamination. That crap should not reach the ocean ! We are the stewards of the earth.