By Tanya Cox,
Senior Technical Specialist, Marine Plastics, Fauna & Flora

In January 2023, plastic pellets – or ‘nurdles’ – hit the headlines as the French government pledged legal action in response to several waves of small, lentil-shaped plastic pellets washing up on its beaches. 

It is suspected that winter winds and water currents resulted in more plastic being brought to the shore than usual and, on Saturday 21 January, the French government’s Ecological Transition Minister, Christophe Béchu, announced that they will be taking legal action over this “environmental nightmare”.

But where have these damaging microplastics come from, and who is responsible? 

Plastic pellets are small pieces of plastic that are melted together to make almost all plastic items we use day to day – from plastic bottles to fridges. Although plastic pellets are at the very beginning of the plastic life cycle, already, before the plastic item is even made, they are causing a huge pollution issue. They spill on land and at sea in staggering numbers, especially while in transit, and it is estimated that billions of individual pellets enter the ocean every year.

In the case of the French nurdle disaster, the pellets were likely spilled from shipping containers lost in the Atlantic Ocean – but, under current legislation, identifying which ships the pellets have come from is nigh on impossible. While the French government’s pledge for legal action has brought pellet pollution up the news agenda, shipping spills and the resulting mass wash-ups are unfortunately not uncommon. This is happening far more than you would like to think. 

Prior to France’s most recent example of this pollution nightmare, there have been eight known major incidents of pellet loss at sea, occurring all over the world from South Africa to Hong Kong to Norway, and including the infamous MV X-Press Pearl shipping disaster off the coast of Sri Lanka, which saw pellets accumulating in piles up to two metres high on local beaches. Together, these shipping incidents have resulted in a total of approximately one trillion plastic pellets being lost into the ocean. 

Large-scale incidents aren’t the only drivers of pellet pollution, however – it is as much of a chronic issue as it is an acute one. Every single day pellets could be leaking from ships due to poor packaging and handling practices that occur, resulting in these insidious pollutants trickling into the ocean in cumulatively huge numbers. 

The result of this frequent loss of pellets into the ocean is not just that they end up littering beaches – plastic pellet pollution has a devastating impact on wildlife. One of the biggest threats pellets pose is ingestion; due to their small, round and sometimes clear appearance, they are often mistaken for food by marine life and are regularly eaten or ingested. And it’s not just fish that are affected. 

Pellets are suspected to be harming species across the taxonomic spectrum – from seabirds to sea turtles to mammals, including seals. In some areas that are particularly badly affected by spillages, pellets can even smother seagrass meadows. Seagrass is a marine plant that is remarkable for its carbon sequestration capacity, but the invasion of plastic in the meadows is reducing the ability of the plants to photosynthesise, while also threatening a range of species that use these meadows as a breeding or feeding ground. 

Another significant threat to wildlife from plastic pellets is their hazardous nature. Before they are even spilled into the ocean, nurdles are hazardous due to the additives they contain. Once they are in the sea they act like a sponge, accumulating bacteria and the environmental pollutants that are present in seawater. When the pellets then come into contact with, or are eaten by, marine animals, all of the nasty chemicals and toxins they’ve adsorbed can be passed onto or into the animal – effectively acting as a poisoned pill for marine life. 

With such damaging consequences, you would think it would be no question that nations would come together under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to do everything they can to ensure effective regulations are in place to significantly reduce the risk of future pollution from ships. We need to bring an end to plastic pellet pollution – especially when the issue is, in reality, very preventable. Disappointingly, however, all action to date has been voluntary in nature – meaning an unlevel playing field and a continuation of this growing environmental catastrophe. 

At Fauna & Flora, we are calling for a more robust, regulatory approach from industry, governments and the IMO – which is responsible for regulating global shipping – to put an end to all sources of plastic pellet pollution. 

There are a number of routes that the IMO could take to achieve this; for example, if the IMO were to legally classify pellets as marine pollutants, this would immediately trigger significant improvements in the way that pellets are packaged, labelled, stowed and transported around the world.  We are also campaigning for national administrations, under the auspices of the IMO, to work together to develop standardised disaster response protocols to help with the containment and clean-up of large-scale spillages from ships.  

At the upcoming IMO Pollution Prevention Response Sub-Committee (PPR) meeting in April 2023, IMO members will continue discussions around plastic pellet classification and regulation. These discussions will result in a recommendation being sent to the Marine Environmental Protection Committee meeting (MEPC80) – being held 3-7 July 2023 – but it is unlikely that any firm decisions on mandatory measures will be made until PPR11 and MEPC81, taking place in 2024. 

Under no circumstances can we let this drag on beyond 2024. The more IMO decision makers delay on classification and regulations, the worse the issue becomes – more plastic is being produced and moved around the world each year, more pellets are spilling into the ocean, and more marine life is paying the price. Time is running out; and all eyes are on IMO members to ensure they do the right thing.

For more info about nurdle pollution, CLICK HERE!

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About The Author

Tanya is a Marine Plastics Senior Technical Specialist at Fauna & Flora with responsibility for helping develop the charity’s programme of work addressing the extent and impact of marine plastic pollution, with the goal of developing pragmatic solutions and upstream interventions. With a master’s degree in Oceanography, Tanya has a broad understanding of oceanic and atmospheric systems and a keen interest in corporate sustainability and CSR policies, circular economies for sustainable resource use, marine conservation issues, behaviour change campaigning and environmental policy. She has worked in Europe, Africa and the Middle East in roles spanning project management, research and monitoring, environmental education and the design of community outreach programs and conservation initiatives.

About Fauna & Flora

Fauna & Flora protects threatened species and ecosystems worldwide, choosing solutions that are sustainable, based on sound science and that enhance human well-being. Operating in more than 40 countries worldwide, Fauna & Flora save species from extinction and habitats from destruction while improving the livelihoods of local people.

Fauna & Flora has been working on marine plastics since 2009, and was the first biodiversity conservation organisation to address the emerging threat from microplastics in our oceans. The charity’s plastics work involves collating scientific evidence and working with partners to propose effective upstream solutions, such as phasing out unnecessary microbeads in personal care and cosmetics products, and working towards a supply chain approach to tackling pellet pollution. Fauna & Flora has also been working with policymakers to shape effective policies and recommendations that tackle microplastic pollution at source.

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