Plastic is Ever-Green – But Not Green

Plastic Nurdles last forever; definitely not ‘green’

Plastic lurks around long after we’re finished with it.

Nearly all the plastic items in our lives (and there’s lots of it!) begin as little manufactured pellets of raw plastic resin, which are known in the industry as plastic nurdles.

More than 100 billion kilograms of them are shipped around the world every year, delivered to processing plants and then heated up, treated with other chemicals, stretched and moulded into our familiar products, containers and packaging.

During their loadings and un-loadings, however, plastic nurdles have a knack for spilling and escaping. They are light enough to become airborne in wind. They float wonderfully and can now be found in every ocean in the world, hence their new nickname: mermaids’ tears.

You can find plastic nurdles in abundance on almost any seashore in Britain, where litter has increased by a staggering 90 per cent in the past 10 years, or on the remotest uninhabited Pacific islands, along with all kinds of other plastic confetti

A dead albatross was found with a piece of plastic from the 1940s in its stomach.

Even if plastic production halted tomorrow, the planet would be dealing with its environmental consequences for thousands of years.  On the bottom of the oceans, where an estimated 70 per cent of marine plastic debris ends up – water bottles sink fairly quickly – it will be around for tens of thousands of years.

The benefits of plastic, most of which relate to convenience, consumer choice and profit, have been phenomenal. But except for the small percentage that has been incinerated, every single molecule of plastic that has ever been manufactured is still somewhere in the environment, and some 100 million tons of it are floating in the oceans.

And our oceans are not like a lake – we can’t just go in with huge nets and clean them up.  The sea is too big.  Plus, most of the plastic is in tiny pieces (plastic nurdles) and it’s everywhere.

All we can do is stop putting more of it in, and that means redesigning our relationship with plastic.

 What Can I Do?

Assuming you don’t litter, there are 3 changes you can make (if you haven’t already done so):

• Replace bottled water with water from your tap or faucet (if your tap water is potable).  Use a water filter if necessary.  If you have to drink non-tap water, then get the large, re-usable bottles delivered to your door.
• Don’t buy plastic bags in stores.  Bring re-usable bags – keep them in convenient places so that you always have them handy.
• Avoid single-use items – take-away packaging, disposables.

These three steps may not change the world, but they will help to reduce the amount of plastic nurdles you send to landfill sites, to remain in our environment.

You might also like:  easy ways to further reduce your plastic use.

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