what is 'nurdle'?

I want to know what is 'nurdle'(forms that "biodegradable" Plastics takes after decayed)?

[edit on 27-3-2010 by masonicon]

Wikipedia says

A nurdle, also known as a pre-production plastic pellet or plastic resin pellet, is a plastic pellet typically under 5 mm (0.20 in) in diameter found outside of the typical plastics manufacturing stream. Pellets are an intermediate good used to produce plastic final products, while a nurdle is scrap.[1] Approximately 60 billion pounds (27 million tonnes) of nurdles are manufactured annually in the United States.[2] One pound of pelletized HDPE contains approximately 25,000 nurdles (approximately 20 mg per nurdle).

Interesting...


I heard the term Nurdle on a few different occassions...and they all took place on the beach.


Heard it in Santa Cruz from multiple people...

Heard it and experienced it in Huntington Beach...they were these semi-clear 'pebbles' that were orange in color. We put them in our mouth and threw them at each other.


What the hell is going on..?

Originally posted by happygolucky

Interesting...


I heard the term Nurdle on a few different occassions...and they all took place on the beach.


Heard it in Santa Cruz from multiple people...

Heard it and experienced it in Huntington Beach...they were these semi-clear 'pebbles' that were orange in color. We put them in our mouth and threw them at each other.


What the hell is going on..?

so "Biodegradable" Plastics are not Eco-Friendly at all because once they decayed, they turned into Plastic pellets that still can chokes and poisons Sea Creatures and to make this even worse those Plastic Pellets that chokes and poisons sea creatures can makes their way into human food chain

[edit on 27-3-2010 by masonicon]

reply to post by masonicon

so "Biodegradable" Plastics are not Eco-Friendly at all because once they decayed, they turned into Plastic pellets that still can chokes and poisons Sea Creatures and to make this even worse those Plastic Pellets that chokes and poisons sea creatures can makes their way into human food chain

Nurdles are pre-production... they don't form from degradation. "Biodegradable" merely means that something, typically microbes, in the environment digests the stuff. The problem is, we're just starting to explore the microbial ecosystems of this planet. In 2003, Craig Venter's team set out to sequence the genomes of the microbial life of the world's oceans by sampling the water from various locations around the globe and within the first three months managed to triple the known species list and discovered millions of new genes. And not all of these critters metabolize those plastics the same way... which results in the risk of some chemicals not so healthy for other life, such as BPA.

So if by "Eco-Friendly" you mean "has no impact on the environment", then no... but then, nothing is. The ecosystem is far more complex than most people give it credit for, and whether or not human interaction is "Eco-Friendly" is subjective to the species and how it reacts to that interaction. But most people don't think of microbial diversity when talking about the ecosystem... they think of elephants, and fishies, and polar bears, and ostriches. You know, the stuff we can see (though there are bacteria large enough to see with the naked eye). Unfortunately, for that kind of life we typically think of preserving (and are a member of) - our interactions with the environment, such as those which release BPA, can have quite harmful side effects.