They say you can’t unsee a nurdle once you start seeing them. Do you know what a nurdle is? Let Abu Dhabi’s resident Marine Biologist, Arabella Willing, fill you in.
“Nurdles,” they may sound cute, but these teeny pellets are the second biggest source of microplastic litter (by weight) found on beaches world over.
Often mistaken for food by wildlife a staggering 278 nurdles were found in the stomach of just one bird. So where do they come from? Nurdles are pre-production plastic pellets – the raw material that makes almost all plastic products. For example, around 600-1200 nurdles are melted and squeezed to make a plastic water bottle. In just one year, roughly 2.4 quadrillion nurdles are made in the US alone. It’s hardly surprising that some of them have found their way into the oceans through accidents and sloppy handling.
The British-based citizen science project “The Great Nurdle Hunt” encourages beachgoers around the world to look for nurdles and report their findings. I have discovered that nurdle-hunting is not only quite fun but eye-opening. The ease at which you can find them on the beaches is an important reminder that we should all try to find alternatives to plastic whenever possible. The more we use plastic, the more nurdles will be made and spilled, even if we dispose of it responsibly.
My hope is that more and more people will become nurdle hunters, so that together we can help to bring about better practices with the industrial handling of these pesky plastic pellets.
Help hunt for nurdles in the Park Hyatt Hotel and Villas Abu Dhabi’s monthly nurdle-hunts. For more information, please call. 02 407 1234.