Plastic Nurdle
Pre-production plastic pellet
Markings and exact colorations may vary.
A lentil-sized plastic pellet, the raw feedstock of manufacturing, spilled into the sea by the billion.
- Typical size
- 0.08–0.2 in
- How often it turns up
- Very common once you look
- Collecting
- Usually legal to collect
- Handling
- Safe to handle
Collect and bin them. Logging nurdle counts helps researchers track spills.
How to tell it apart
- Uniform lens or cylinder shape, 2–5 mm
- White, yellowed or clear
- Concentrates in the wrack line with seeds
Found one?
Photograph it and BeachNut ranks the likely matches with a confidence read, then logs it to your collection with the beach and date.
Browsing beaches and the full field guide is free. A free account logs unlimited finds and gives you three photo identifications a day.
More marine debris in the field guide
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