Nurdles and Microplastics Review

Project Significance

Nurdles (pre-production raw form of plastic) are sold and shipped to plastics manufacturers, where they are melted down and moulded or otherwise shaped into products. There is often a long chain of shipping, storage and transport steps between the creation of nurdles to the entering of plastics machinery, which leaves a large number of possible leakage sites that can release large amounts of plastic pellets into the aquatic environment. When they are in the environment they can undergo defragmentation and turn into smaller microplastics that can be ingested by aquatic organisms and cause harmful effects to a variety of organisms living in the water (e.g. zooplanktons, fishes, etc). Since the presence and importance of these type of plastics in the environment is usually underestimated this project provides estimation of the release of plastic pellets to the aquatic environment in Australia and recommend strategies to minimise and control microplastic pollution to protect out aquatic ecosystem and biota.