Although it took place more than two years ago, an environmental disaster that hit the Atlantic coast in northwestern France is still having ripple effects today.
Waves of tiny lentil-sized plastic grains began washing up on the shores of Brittany and the Loire region in January 2023, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Dubbed a “nightmare” by Christophe Béchu, then French minister for ecological transition, it was suspected that the tiny pellets spilled from a shipping container lost in the Atlantic Ocean. A lawsuit was filed but the case was soon closed, since no ship reported an incident in the area.
Despite tireless efforts by volunteers to clean up the plastic pellets littered across the shoreline at the time, more were found during the winter storms that battered the region earlier this year, according to French coastal protection union Vigipol.
Known as mermaid’s tears or nurdles, these industrial plastic pellets are the raw material used to make a variety of plastic products like bottles, pens or even car bumpers. They are made from crude oil derivatives like naphtha, measure about two to five millimetres in size and, if leaked into the environment, can cause irreversible damage to wildlife and ecosystems.
Which is likely what earned them mention in this week’s negotiations to finalise a global treaty against plastic pollution. Delegates from 184 countries have been trying to hammer out an agreement at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, since August 5. But with less than 36 hours left and widely diverging positions slowing the talks, curbing plastic pellet pollution on a global scale seems unlikely for now.
‘A chemical cocktail’
Plastic pellets are the third-largest source of microplastic pollution in the EU, according to the European Commission, and the second-largest source of microplastic pollution worldwide. They mostly build up in marine environments but can end up on land as well, where they harm local ecosystems.
It is estimated that 445,970 tonnes of plastic pellets end up in the environment worldwide each year.
Spilled pellets are also a cause of microplastic contamination, which poses serious threats to human health. Pellets don’t biodegrade and are often ingested by animals like shellfish and fish, which humans go on to consume. Research has shown that once inside our bodies, microplastics are potential risk factors for cardiovascular disease, which can lead to strokes or heart attacks. They are so pervasive that they have even been found in breast milk, semen, brains and bone marrow.
Nurdles, like most plastics, also act as sponges for toxic products and bacteria found in their surroundings. They can attract so-called forever chemicals like PCBs and PFAs, but can also carry harmful bacteria like E.coli.
“Chemical pollution tends to stick to the surface of the pellets. So not only do they contain polluting elements within them, they also contain other environmental contaminants, [which] surround them,” says Frédérique Mongodin, marine litter policy officer at Seas At Risk, a European environmental coalition.
“They turn into a sort of chemical cocktail.”
Once released into the environment, the nurdles are difficult to clean up. There is no technique to carry out a sweeping, large-scale removal of pellets from shorelines or beaches. Most operations require the manual use of handheld tools like shovels, vacuums or screens to separate the tiny granules from their environment.
“It’s also important to note that most clean-ups are not done soon enough,” says Mongodin. “Pellets released into nature can spread within minutes,” she says, especially if they are spilled into marine environments. Given their tendency to float, pellets can travel far across oceans and seas.
Production sites cause most spills
The most catastrophic leak of plastic pellets took place in 2021, when a cargo ship carrying towers of containers filled with toxic chemicals and billions of plastic nurdles caught fire off the coast of Sri Lanka.
“It was just like out of a war movie,” environmentalist Muditha Katuwawala, who helped with the clean-up operation, told the BBC. A thick layer of nurdles strewn across the coastline looked “like snow”, he said. Dead fish and turtles washed up in swells, pellets stuck in their gills.
The X-Press Pearl cargo disaster became the largest plastic spill ever recorded. Four years on, volunteers on the island’s beaches are still sifting through the sand and finding countless nurdles.
Although colossal spills like this get the most media traction, France's Cedre research institute found that the risk of a pellet leak was highest along industrial sites and in loading, packaging or storage areas where nurdles are often stuffed in 25kg bags that hold one million pellets each.
“While incidents happen during transportation, it’s not the most important cause of pellet pollution,” says Mongodin. “At production sites, pellets are stored openly. There is nothing to prevent the pellets from flying away if a bag gets torn. And since the bags they are held in are quite thin and tear easily, this happens quite often. The bags are moved around using forklifts, for example, which can accidentally pierce them.”
The loss of plastic pellets happens at every single stage of the value chain, from producers to storage to transportation, converters and even recyclers. Petrochemical companies like Dow, ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies or Shell manufacture them before they are shipped internationally, most often by cargo ship or train.
In total, between 300 and 400 million tonnes are produced globally each year, according to Cedre.
‘Not enough’
France seems to be somewhat of a pioneer in the prevention of plastic pellet spills. An anti-waste law passed in 2022 stipulates that pellet producers must adopt certain regulations to prevent any runoff, like putting filters in drains, making sure pellets are removed from car parks, installing tarps around industrial sites and sealing transportation lorries, for example.
The EU took inspiration from the initiative and is in the process of finalising its own set of regulations, which will be implemented within the next two years.
“Now that the EU regulation has passed, hopefully we will see some change, but it takes time,” says Mongodin. “And unfortunately, some simple solutions like making packaging more rigid were not adopted in the EU law.”
On a global scale, last year the International Maritime Organization (IMO) published guidelines on how to transport pellets safely by sea as well as recommendations for clean-up in case of a spill. And as of 2026, the IMO will oblige captains to report container incidents to the nearest coastal state and the country that registered their vessel.
But for now, there are no international regulations that specifically address plastic pollution from pellets. This is why the stakes are so high at the UN talks this week.
Read moreDeadlocked plastics treaty talks 'at cliff's edge'
Lisa Pastor, advocacy officer at ocean preservation group Surfrider Foundation Europe, has been anxiously attending the talks in Geneva since they began more than a week ago.
“The best approach to tackle plastic pellets would be to take preventative measures, which also means training personnel who handle them on best practices and teach them how to report any incidents so that they can be followed up quickly, minimising pollution once the damage is done,” Pastor says.
“And that’s crucial on an international level because pollution knows no borders. If there is a spill in one country, it will have consequences in another.”
But the talks are being stalled by deep divisions over whether plastic production should be included in the final treaty at all.
While the EU seems determined to rein in production, a cluster of mostly oil-producing states like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Russia and Iran – dubbed the "Like-Minded Group" – want the treaty to focus primarily on waste management.
“There are many lobbyists from the petrochemical industry here in Geneva. Some even belong to national delegations,” says Pastor.
“If the treaty doesn’t address production, in all honesty, it’s not up to the task. We can’t focus solely on how to report spills, managing existing pollution or clean-up operations. It’s not enough.”
After doubling between 2000 and 2019, plastic production is expected to keep rising. The OECD estimates that global production will increase by 70 percent of 2020 levels by 2040.
And with plastic waste poised to triple globally by 2060, time is running out.
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