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Environmentalists hunt wildlife-killing nurdles
sfgate.com ^ | 29 Oct 2011 | Peter Fimrite

Posted on 10/30/2011 10:39:17 PM PDT by smokingfrog

Environmental regulators walked gingerly along the San Leandro shoreline Friday, keeping a sharp eye out for the elusive wildlife killer known as the "nurdle."

"I've got one," said Jared Blumenfeld, regional administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, after scooping one out of a worker's net. There, in his palm, was a tiny white pellet.

Nurdles are the tiny bits of plastic that are melted down and used in the production of plastic bags, bubble wrap, packaging and wrapping material. They may sound cuddly and nonthreatening, but they are believed to be responsible for the sickness and death of thousands of fish and birds in the region that have mistaken them for food.

The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, State Water Resources Control Board and the EPA have targeted four San Leandro plastic manufacturers in a first-in-the-nation effort to halt the rampant spillage of the pellets, hundreds of thousands of which have washed into storm drains that flow into San Francisco Bay.

"It's a very big problem," Blumenfeld said during Friday's first mandated nurdle cleanup operation at Oyster Bay Regional Shoreline in San Leandro. "We're looking at the practices of companies that have a great deal of these nurdles and we're making sure they are contained."

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: eparegulations; evilplastic
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This is one of the reasons why you don't want to be operating any kind of business in CA.

Approaching Zero Trash

1 posted on 10/30/2011 10:39:24 PM PDT by smokingfrog
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To: smokingfrog; Tax-chick; NicknamedBob

So now Nurdle the Turdle is girdled and kirtled?


2 posted on 10/30/2011 10:49:10 PM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: smokingfrog
"Nurdles" . . . ?!? That's funny; when I was working in the plastic business, they were called pellets.

The "Land of Fruits and Nuts" is committing economic suicide.
3 posted on 10/30/2011 10:54:28 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: smokingfrog

what we didn’t see is them placing them in the water for the photo op.

they should go to prison for this bs.


4 posted on 10/30/2011 10:55:51 PM PDT by dila813
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To: Olog-hai

“Nurdles” are much more touchy-feely than harsh-sounding “pellets.” Even California’s toxins must be PC!


5 posted on 10/30/2011 11:00:46 PM PDT by Graewoulf ( obama"care" violates the 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Law, AND is illegal by the U.S. Constitution.)
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To: dila813

According to the article, there is a giant collection of plastic garbage/soup twice the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean. (You can’t see it in satellite pictures though, because plastic is translucent.)


6 posted on 10/30/2011 11:02:25 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open ( <o> ---)
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To: smokingfrog

7 posted on 10/30/2011 11:12:54 PM PDT by Allegra (Hey! Stop looking at my tagline like that.)
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To: smokingfrog

How do they know that garbage did not float there from CHINA?


8 posted on 10/30/2011 11:17:06 PM PDT by Frank_2001
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To: smokingfrog

By any chance were they speaking of styrofoam packing peanuts? I have never seen a loose “nurdle” in my life, and if they are the raw form of plastic bags and such I do not know why a company would waste any.


9 posted on 10/30/2011 11:26:01 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (ya don't tug on Supermans cape/ya don't spit into the wind...and ya don't speak well of Mitt to Jim!)
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To: smokingfrog

Sounds like something from Dr. Seuss...


10 posted on 10/30/2011 11:27:01 PM PDT by Hunton Peck (See my FR homepage for a list of businesses that support WI Gov. Scott Walker)
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To: Frank_2001
How do they know that garbage did not float there from CHINA?

Good question. They must have checked their nurdle DNA. /s

11 posted on 10/30/2011 11:28:27 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open ( <o> ---)
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To: Allegra
Nurdle Song
12 posted on 10/30/2011 11:29:09 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open ( <o> ---)
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Plastic Resin Pellets
13 posted on 10/30/2011 11:35:39 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open ( <o> ---)
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To: smokingfrog

I didn’t say they didn’t exist, I said I’d never before this heard of a US company wasting any, particularly in such a way they could get loose on the ground or in the water. Of course they would be bad news if eaten by sufficiently small critters.


14 posted on 10/30/2011 11:39:36 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (ya don't tug on Supermans cape/ya don't spit into the wind...and ya don't speak well of Mitt to Jim!)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

I hope the nurdle Nazis don’t come to Texas. My brother in law works for a company that makes that stuff. Seems like the environmentalists are trying to make plastics the DDT of the 21st century.


15 posted on 10/31/2011 12:15:49 AM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open ( <o> ---)
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To: smokingfrog

Don’t waste your nurdles and you should be ok... I mean how is the common consumer ever going to get nurdles?


16 posted on 10/31/2011 12:32:42 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (ya don't tug on Supermans cape/ya don't spit into the wind...and ya don't speak well of Mitt to Jim!)
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To: smokingfrog

What BS...


17 posted on 10/31/2011 1:01:09 AM PDT by org.whodat (Just another heartless American, hated by Perry and his fellow demorats.)
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To: smokingfrog
Spray ‘em with degreaser and they disappear like magic.
18 posted on 10/31/2011 1:33:07 AM PDT by this_ol_patriot (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner)
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Don’t waste your nurdles and you should be ok...

I never waste mine. I feed any extras I have to endangered baby birds.

19 posted on 10/31/2011 1:47:47 AM PDT by AAABEST (Et lux in tenebris lucet: et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt)
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To: Frank_2001

I just can’t wait for thier reaction to the tsunami debris mass thats heading for California. Should be fun


20 posted on 10/31/2011 3:23:01 AM PDT by ronnie raygun (V)
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