The Plastic Crisis: By Julie Peller Ph.D.

Green Junction

Nurdles are the plastic pellets made by the polymer industry. Their average diameter is 2-5 mm. The larger ones are similar in size to a pencil eraser. Every year, trillions (or more) of nurdles are shipped from the industries to companies that make plastic items. Large numbers of these small, light-weight pellets are released into the environment and pollute our water, sands, soils and flora. There are no laws in place to penalize companies that spill nurdles that pollute the environment.

I have been leading a team of researchers, students and community members in a project to clean highly polluted areas near the Indiana shoreline of Lake Michigan. One particular sand path leading to the lake has obviously served as a settling area for plastic pieces (garbage) that readily travel in the lake. We have removed roughly 6,000 nurdles from this sand path, and the job is not complete. In total, over 15,000 pieces of plastic garbage, most smaller than a bottle cap, have been tallied from our clean-up. It is interesting to note from the International Plastic Pellet Count in 2025 “sites in Australia reported the highest number of pre-production plastic pellets with 5,467 counted, followed by Canada with 1,266.”

Texas is the state with the worst nurdle pollution, as expected, since it is home to at least 36 plastic production plants that create nurdles. A prominent Texas oilman made this public statement: “For Texans who value both economic growth and environmental stewardship, addressing the scourge of plastic nurdles is not only an ecological imperative, but an economic necessity.” For years, volunteers (nurdle patrol) have been collecting nurdles and compiling data to demonstrate the magnitude of the problem (nurdlepatrol.org). This scenario represents another example of a lack of political will to address environmental contaminants that pollute the earth that we are borrowing from our children. “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”

Julie Peller, Ph.D., is an environmental chemist (Professor of Chemistry at Valparaiso University). She has been writing a weekly column, The Green Junction, for the past seven years and is helping to move the call of Laudato Si to action. Her research interests include advanced oxidation for aqueous solutions, water quality analyses, emerging contaminants, air quality analyses, challenges along the Lake Michigan shoreline (such as Cladophora, water, and sediment contaminants), and student and citizen participation in environmental work.