WATER QUALITY IMPROVEMENTS
Nurdles, Balloons and Cigarette Butts: What You Need to Know! 🎈🌊🚯🌎
April 25th is the 24th Annual Creek to Bay Cleanup Day, the largest cleanup effort in San Diego County aimed at tackling our County’s ongoing pollution concern. Pollution in San Diego County’s waterways can significantly impact water quality, harm wildlife, and pose a threat to our own health as well. Plastic fragments and cigarette butts have consistently led the way as the most polluted items found at San Diego County beach and community cleanup events over the years. While this continues to be true, it’s noteworthy that two pollutants in particular, nurdles and balloons, are rising in concern due to their detrimental impact on our waterways and marine life.
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Nurdles – Nurdles are plastic pellets (about the size of a lentil) which are the raw material used to manufacture virtually every plastic product in existence (water bottles, disposable cutlery, computer monitors, car parts, toys, etc.). Nurdles are known as pre-production pellets and are melted down and molded into consumer products. At nearly every step of that journey, they can get loose and escape the production process. They can leak from hoses during factory transfer or loading, fall from rail cars in transit and overboard from cargo ships, and get picked up or blown around by the wind. Once loose, they are difficult to contain and nearly impossible to clean up due to their small size. They wash into storm drains, rivers, and the ocean, which can harm or kill our wildlife.
Because nurdles look like fish eggs - sea turtles, fish, and seabirds often mistake them for food. This results in digestive blockages, starvation, and even death. Nurdles also absorb pollutants like PCBs and mercury from surrounding seawater. When animals eat contaminated nurdles, those toxins move up the food chain and have the potential to impact our own health. Finally, nurdles are a key contributor to our growing plastic pollution problem. Under UV exposure and wave action, nurdles break down into microplastics and nanoplastics that persist in the environment for hundreds of years, absorbing and releasing toxic chemicals as they slowly degrade. Check out this Fox 5 Video on the impact of nurdles, including how they make their way from our County’s railway tracks to our ocean, as well as local efforts to address the issue.
Balloons – While they may not be a top item found in local cleanups in terms of quantity, the release of helium balloons can be deadly to wildlife due to entanglement and ingestion since they can easily be mistaken for food. Animals can die from starvation when balloons or balloon fragments block their digestive tracts, or when they become entangled in balloon strings. Like nurdles, balloons also contribute to the microplastics problem, especially the plastics in mylar balloons. These never biodegrade and therefore will persist in the environment for generations. Latex balloons have the added risk of being treated with various chemicals to aid manufacturing and prevent decomposition which poses a toxic threat. Another serious threat is that foil or mylar balloons can spark wildfires and cause power outages if they hit our power lines.
Cigarette butts – By no means are cigarette butts an emerging pollutant. In fact, they had consistently shown up as the top item collected since beach cleanup efforts began in 2007, only to be surpassed by plastic fragments in 2023. However, the numbers remain unsettling with over 69,000 cigarette butts (over 17% of all items collected) found in the County’s recent local cleanups in spite of public smoking bans at all public beaches in San Diego County. They can easily move through our storm drain system from all over the County and find their way to our waterways. This has detrimental effects on marine ecosystems by leaching toxins, dangerous chemicals, and carcinogens into the water. In addition, their filters are a common source of plastic pollution and do not biodegrade. Seabirds and marine mammals can be poisoned by cigarette butts because they misinterpret them for food and ingest them.
What You Can Do to Help!
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Learn more and spread the word about nurdles, balloons, and cigarette butts and their impact on our environment, waterways and wildlife. Share your knowledge with your friends, family and colleagues. Teach your kids early on with these nurdle and balloon pollution prevention resources.
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Join the April 25th Creek to Bay Cleanup, or any of the many organized or do-it-yourself cleanups throughout the month. Be on the lookout for nurdles and balloons and report them when you see them using these nurdle and tracking tools. Support Trash4Tokens and purchase a Mermaid Tear Catcher, a scooping device specifically designed to sieve through sand to collect nurdles. Throw cigarette butts in designated ash trays or closed receptacles. Or as an option, participate in TerraCycle’s free Cigarette Waste Recycling Program to keep cigarette butts off our beaches and out of our communities. Measure the good your ocean cleanup did for ocean life by using this Wildlife Impact Calculator.
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Support policy change and current campaigns aimed at reducing or prohibiting these pollutants.Support the Surfrider San Diego Rise Above Balloons Campaign, BallonsBlow.org, Balloon Release Prevention Program, and the Keep America Beautiful Cigarette Litter Prevention Program. Contact your federal representatives to push for the passage of the Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act which would direct the EPA to prohibit pellet discharges into U.S. waterways.
- Instead of releasing balloons in remembrance of a loved one’s passing or for celebratory occasions, use balloon alternatives like blowing bubbles or creating a mass gathering in a shape or word. Other ideas include reusable flags, kites, ribbon dancers, and so many more.
Take action against these problematic pollutants! It’s important to remember that common pollutants like pet waste, trash, and automobile fluids, are also making their way to our shorelines and waterways through our storm drain system. Small actions you take today like promptly picking up pet waste, cleaning up automotive fluid spills, and closing lids on trash and recycling bins can make a big difference in preserving the beauty of our ocean. The County thanks its residents for participating in this year’s Creek to Bay Cleanup event, as well as other events throughout the year, to prevent water pollution and keeping our waterbodies healthy!
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