Small plastic “noodles” are killing the environment. Photo credit: Gentlemanrook via Wikimedia Commons
Small, often colorful with cute names: “nurdles.” These are small pellets that dot the coastline and float in our oceans, but are not harmless. Also known as “Mermaid Tears,” these works are actually small bits of raw industrial plastics, the second largest source of microplastic pollution in the world. very I’m worried.
“Mermaid Tears” is a raw material used to manufacture plastic products, from bottles to car bumpers to television sets. They range in size from about 2-5 mm, and in this case, can cause irreversible damage to marine wildlife, especially ecosystems. It is estimated that 445,970 tons of these pellets leak into the environment every year.
In January 2023, hundreds of thousands of these noodles began to wash away in the coast of Brittany and the Loire region in northwestern France. At the time, experts assumed that the pellets had spilled from a shipping container lost in the Atlantic, but no ships reported incidents in the area.
Now France is still feeling the influence of what has been called a nightmare by French officials. Even though volunteers are tirelessly cleaning the coastline, more were discovered earlier this year, more than two years after the original incident.
Microplastics, a big problem
These pellets are part of microplastic contamination, although small, which is part of a much larger problem. This type of contamination poses a serious threat to human health and is instead consumed by animals like fish and shellfish that humans consume, and is therefore consumed by humans. Noodles can absorb toxic products and bacteria found around them. It can also carry bacteria containing highly harmful E. coli.
Microplastics can cause a variety of health issues, including cardiovascular disease, when they are inside our bodies. They are now found in breast milk, brain, semen, and even bone marrow.
Nurdles can’t be cleaned on a large scale either. It is often a slow moving process and requires handheld tools such as vacuum cleaners, screens, and shovels. They can also float, cross the ocean and spread out into nature quickly. They have been found in rivers, lakes, inland, and even soil.
The catastrophic nuld spill in Sri Lanka
The worst of these Nurdospills happened in 2021, just four years ago when a large cargo ship off the coast of Sri Lanka set fire. Plastic noodles meters piles are washed deep down onto the coastline, with dead fish and turtles stuck in their mouths and gills. There was reportedly so much plastic that onlookers could no longer see the sand. This was the largest plastic spill ever recorded, and even today, volunteers on the island find countless pieces of plastic in the sand.
Although the disaster in Sri Lanka was an accident, noodles are not often handled in facilities that are transported, prepared or processed. They are often stored in bags, can easily tear and send in the wind, and are often moved around using forklifts. Loss of noodles occurs at every stage of the process. 300-400 million tonnes of noodles are produced each year.
Plastic waste increases at an incredible rate
Between 2000 and 2019, the amount of plastic waste doubled and is poised to triple by 2060. The EU has decided to pass legislation that addresses this widespread and horrifying issue, but environmental experts say that placing stricter regulations on reporting spills and cleanups is more than just stricter regulations. It is argued that regulations must be the strictest in production facets, starting with changing the containers in which these noodles are stored. However, the process of changing the law is slow.