Industry
Fact-checked

At AboutMechanics, we're committed to delivering accurate, trustworthy information. Our expert-authored content is rigorously fact-checked and sourced from credible authorities. Discover how we uphold the highest standards in providing you with reliable knowledge.

Learn more...

What are Nurdles?

Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon

Nurdles are the raw material for almost every plastic product on Earth, from the keys on a keyboard to the juice jug in a refrigerator. They are sometimes known as pre-production plastic pellets, referencing the fact that they are a raw material, or “plastic resin pellets.” As these alternate names imply, they are tiny pellets of plastic that can be melted down and formed into new shapes.

It is estimated that over 250 billion pounds (113 billion kilograms) of nurdles are manufactured and shipped globally every year. They are typically shipped via tanker truck, with each tanker being loaded to the brim with the pellets. The advantage of using tankers is that they can easily be loaded onto container ships, making them easy to move across the ocean and to drop onto trains and shipping trucks for transit inland.

A desktop computer with several parts made from nurdles.
A desktop computer with several parts made from nurdles.

To use nurdles, manufacturers feed the plastic pellets into hoppers which melt them down, allowing the manufacturer to make plastic products. They can be melted and injected into molds, extruded by machines, or pressed in specialized presses which are designed to make specific products, among other things. Nurdles come in a variety of types, allowing manufacturers to make a range of products, and they can be clear or colored, allowing producers to color their own plastics or utilize pre-mixed colors for their products.

Nurdles are commonly transported on container ships.
Nurdles are commonly transported on container ships.

Studies on marine pollution suggest that nurdles may be one of the leading constituents of marine debris. They are manufactured in such high volume annually that it is almost inevitable to find some being spilled at every step of the way. As they spill, they work their way into waterways, eventually reaching the ocean, where they can wreak havoc. The pellets can carry harmful chemicals which hurt marine organisms, they can choke small animals, and they appear to be able to act as sponges to concentrate pollutants released into the marine environment.

Nurdles are typically transported by tanker truck.
Nurdles are typically transported by tanker truck.

The amount of nurdles currently bobbing in the world's oceans is impossible to estimate, but beach clean-up groups and researchers routinely collect them by the bucket from beaches and areas like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, suggesting that they may be an endemic problem. Because plastics take thousands of years to break down, nurdles could potentially endure in the natural environment for generations, leading many people to encourage tighter control of the pellets in an attempt to ensure that less of them make their way out into the world.

Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon

Ever since she began contributing to the site several years ago, Mary has embraced the exciting challenge of being a AboutMechanics researcher and writer. Mary has a liberal arts degree from Goddard College and spends her free time reading, cooking, and exploring the great outdoors.

Learn more...
Mary McMahon
Mary McMahon

Ever since she began contributing to the site several years ago, Mary has embraced the exciting challenge of being a AboutMechanics researcher and writer. Mary has a liberal arts degree from Goddard College and spends her free time reading, cooking, and exploring the great outdoors.

Learn more...

Discussion Comments

Brewchief

I agree with Cindy. Considering the enormous scale of nurdle production, governments need to regulate the way they are transported, as with the containers, similar to the way single-hulled oil tankers are being phased out (because of their capacity to create spills in a collision).

Now is the time to be more environmentally conscious! I would pick the past as the time for action, but if governments and the people that comprise them keep leaving it for future generations to handle because the problem is not currently immense enough to seem to have a major effect, then by the time it is dealt with it could be too late. Entire sections of fish and animals that make up the food chain could be diminished to the point of not being able to sustain the chain. That would be catastrophic.

Perhaps that seems extreme, but it could be possible. Why take a chance?

anon128067

this is such a shame! We have fish and birds dying with full bellies of starvation thinking these nerdles are eggs of various critters. Imagined white, pink, clear nurdles bouncing on the surface of streams, lakes and the sea! Cindy of AGNR 75

Post your comments
Login:
Forgot password?
Register:
    • A desktop computer with several parts made from nurdles.
      By: Dmitry Rukhlenko
      A desktop computer with several parts made from nurdles.
    • Nurdles are commonly transported on container ships.
      By: Nickolay Khoroshkov
      Nurdles are commonly transported on container ships.
    • Nurdles are typically transported by tanker truck.
      By: Greg Pickens
      Nurdles are typically transported by tanker truck.