"At least 36 facilities in Texas identified as potential microplastic polluters, according to new map"

"LA PORTE, Texas – On a humid summer afternoon in July, about 40 minutes from Houston, children are running up and down the Texas coastline of Sylvan Beach. Families make camps for the day with coolers filled with drinks and snacks.

It doesn’t take more than a few steps near the shore to realize plastics have overtaken the beach. Bottles, bags and wrappers litter the sand with no trash cans in sight. Intermingled with the sand, small white disks begin to appear beneath your feet. At first glance, you may assume they are shells, many of the local birds do too. But they are hard plastic pellets, or nurdles.

These nurdles — which can absorb harmful toxics and pollute the environment as they continue to degrade into smaller microplastics – are produced by more than 140 facilities across the U.S., including 36 in Texas. Most of them are clustered, mirroring the oil, gas and petrochemical plants along the coast, according to a new mapping initiative from the non-profits Environment America and Public Interest Research Group. The new report gives insight into where the unregulated nurdles, and other pre-production plastics such as flakes, beads and powders, are coming from."

Cami Ferrell reports for Environmental Health News August 15, 2024. [2]