Meet the nurdle hunter combing the beach for hidden pollution
| Crystal Cove State Park, Calif.
This 3-mile stretch of beneath a fortress of 80-foot bluffs is a California tourism poster if there ever was one. Nothing disturbs the pristine, sunny view, except 鈥� once you鈥檙e aware of them 鈥� the nurdles.
But you have to look close 鈥� on-your-hands-and-knees close 鈥� to see one. And once you do, you see another and another 鈥� so many that you may not think of this, or any beach, the same way again.
Mark McReynolds is trying to bring into focus these tiny preproduction plastic pellets that manufacturers melt down to mold everything from car bumpers to toothpaste caps. They鈥檝e been escaping factories, container ships, trains, trucks 鈥� and public notice 鈥� for decades.
Why We Wrote This
How do you curb a problem that鈥檚 hidden in plain sight? Mark McReynolds鈥� nurdle hunters scour the sands for a tiny pollutant most beachgoers don鈥檛 even know exists.
Dr. McReynolds is an environmental scientist with the 海角大神 conservation nonprofit who鈥檇 never heard of nurdles three years ago. He鈥檚 now joined a global movement studying their trail into the environment. Some 鈥� like the and the 鈥� map nurdles through informal online reporting by citizen scientists around the globe.
鈥淜nowledge opens your eyes. You don鈥檛 see plastic bags blowing around [on this beach] because people pick them up,鈥� says Dr. McReynolds. 鈥淏ut, they鈥檙e not picking up the stuff that鈥檚 3 millimeters [because] they don鈥檛 even know it鈥檚 there.鈥�
The 2- to 3-millimeter, multicolored orbs are a subset of microplastics 颅鈥� plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in size. Nurdles accumulate where water inevitably takes them, and they鈥檝e been found on shorelines of every continent.
Establishing a baseline count of the presence of nurdles 鈥� and, more broadly, any microplastics 鈥� is the focus of Dr. McReynolds鈥� . Charting the count, noting tide, current, and weather conditions will show if amounts are increasing, and perhaps at what rate and why. That knowledge, he says, can inform solutions to plastic pollution such as regulation of their use.
Aided by citizen science volunteers 鈥� and his wife, Karen McReynolds, an associate professor of science at Hope International University who offers access to a lab and student help 鈥� he conducts a complex monthly microplastic sampling and a twice-annual nurdle hunt. 聽
Microplastics research and cleanups have 鈥渆xploded鈥� in the past decade due to new 鈥渦nderstanding of the apparent health and ecosystem risks,鈥� says Erica Cirino, whose book is a tale of adventure chasing microplastics around the globe. 聽
In her travels she鈥檚 been struck by how unifying the plastic problem can be for people from diverse groups 鈥� from faith-based organizations to surfers and fishers, conservatives to liberals. They don鈥檛 all know what to do about it, she says, but 鈥渁 very concrete thing like a [nurdle] hunt or getting your hands dirty is one of the best ways to get people involved.鈥�
It鈥檚 science, not a trash pickup
鈥淲hat are you doing? Picking up trash?鈥� queries a steady stream of beach walkers whenever Dr. McReynolds鈥� crew trundles onto the beach and sets up gear.
Whether it鈥檚 a timed hunt, picking colorful nurdles out of the sand and vegetation during a 15-minute period, or a monthly microplastics collection, the scene suggests no ordinary beach pickup: It鈥檚 a colorful jumble of flags and measuring tape to create GPS-recorded 100-meter transects and buckets full of seawater lugged from the waves to sieve plastics out of collected sand.
These are teachable moments for Dr. McReynolds, whose passion for the environment involves faith in God鈥檚 earthly creation thoughtfully reconciled with the scientific method (he has a Ph.D. in environmental studies and a master鈥檚 degree in divinity). He explains the science of nurdles and microplastics to the curious while keeping an eye on volunteers troweling sand into 5-gallon buckets. Each bucket of sand can yield anywhere from no plastics to as much as 300 pieces to be analyzed in the lab. It sounds small, but the randomized samples can be extrapolated to the rest of the beach.
His state park research permit requires a public education element, and Dr. McReynolds displays laminated explainers with photos of piles of multicolored nurdles. 聽
One recent morning he told some beach walkers how nurdles are believed to absorb toxic chemicals, and 鈥� because they resemble fish eggs 鈥� are eaten by fish and birds and enter the food chain. Almost on cue, a bold seagull hopped up to a laminated photo of nurdles and hungrily pecked at it.
A lonely devotion
A scarlet macaw expert by training, and an ordained Mennonite in the nearby San Gabriel Mountains, Dr. McReynolds is an unpaid director of A Rocha鈥檚 Southern California operations 鈥� which means he鈥檚 as much a volunteer as his citizen scientist recruits.
And it can be a lonely devotion, says his wife Karen, who notes that he possesses 鈥渂ulldog grab-it-and-do-not-let-go鈥� tendencies to bridge science and faith. His A Rocha colleague, Bob Sluka, says it鈥檚 Mr. McReynolds鈥� 鈥減astoral heart鈥� that drives the Crystal Cove microplastics survey and its potential to spur people 鈥渢o recognize things they are doing in their own life as consumers and change their behavior.鈥�
Indeed, notes Grace Hadinata, a former environmental engineer who volunteers to analyze microplastics at the lab and gathering them at the beach. She has come to some deeper understanding. Picking through a jar of debris in the lab, sorting nurdles from Styrofoam-like crumbs and gardening perlite, she says the survey鈥檚 importance boils down to this: 鈥淧eople at the beach have no idea nurdles are there unless they鈥檙e reading one of our flyers, right? If we don鈥檛 do anything about [nurdles], they鈥檙e just going to accumulate.鈥澛� 聽
How bad is bad?
Dr. McReynolds holds a balanced view of ubiquitous plastics: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a question that we鈥檙e going to be asking for a while. Because although there is some good [in plastics], there鈥檚 certainly some bad, and we don鈥檛 know how bad the bad is.鈥�
Asked about nurdles and efforts like Dr. McReynolds鈥�, George O鈥機onnor, a spokesperson for the Plastics Industry Association, wrote: 鈥淭he foundation of the plastics industry is scientific research, so we consider all types of scientific data to inform and improve our operations.鈥�
Dr. McReynolds鈥� Crystal Cove study, now in its second year, is well on its way to showing that microplastics are present and collect here via local ocean current. It鈥檚 an incremental, but important, bit of baseline evidence in the early science on the subject.
Will it help save the world? Mr. McReynolds wags a finger at that idea: 鈥淚 won鈥檛 ever use that word. ... I won鈥檛 save the world from this pollution problem. Preserve it, yes. We want to take care of it.鈥澛�
Even diverse strangers new to nurdles seem to recognize that motive. 聽
In the six months the Monitor has observed the beach surveys, the universal parting response from passersby is a variation of 鈥淭hank you for what you鈥檙e doing.鈥�
