CALPIRG joins first-ever International Plastic Pellet Count

On May 3rd, CALPIRG staff, student leaders and members combed through local waterways across the state in search of plastic pellets as part of the first-ever International Plastic Pellet Count Saturday. We joined thousands of volunteers across the country to raise awareness about prevalence of plastic pellets in the environment, especially waterways, and catalyze decision makers to do something about this scourge. 

In total 38,290 plastic pellets were found during clean ups around the country and world, and 3,869 in California. Most of the California pellets were found in Southern California, with high numbers found in Long Beach and San Diego County. 

Plastic pellets are the small building blocks of plastic items and end up as pollution in our environment.Photo by Staff | TPIN

Plastic pellets, also known as nurdles, are the building blocks of plastic production. They’re shipped across the world in large quantities to be melted down and molded into water bottles, plastic bags and countless other items. They often spill during manufacturing and transport, littering our land and waterways. An estimated 10 trillion plastic pellets enter the oceans every year. 

Once in the environment, these tiny pellets can cause big problems. Like other types of microplastic that pollute our oceans, lakes and rivers, they pose environmental and potential public health threats. Plastic pellets can absorb toxic chemicals such as DDT, PCBs and mercury. These types of pollutants bioaccumulate, becoming more concentrated and more toxic as they move up the food chain. Birds, fish, turtles and other marine animals sometimes mistake plastic pellets for food, such as fish eggs or tadpoles. 

Clearly we need better regulations to prevent pellets from spilling into our environment, but more importantly we need to stop making so much plastic in the first place.  We should move away from single-use plastic items we don’t need like plastic bottles and bags and all the excessive packaging in stores and in online shipments. Together we can tackle plastic pollution.