Amount of “nurdles” — tiny plastic pellets that are the basic building blocks of nearly all plastic products — that make their way into oceans annually when they are mishandled during manufacturing or transport, polluting beaches and waterways and posing a health threat to both wildlife and humans. California enacted a law designed to curb nurdle pollution in 2007, and last year legislators in Illinois, New Jersey and Virginia introduced bills. In Texas, a coalition of environmentalists, fishermen, business leaders and local officials is pushing for more nurdle regulation, arguing that the pellets pose an economic threat to coastal communities.
