Sea Based Solutions
We are seeing more and more catastrophic spills of large amounts of nurdles at sea. This is because more nurdles are being shipped around the world to keep up with the demand for increasing plastic production, and ships transporting nurdles can easily loose tankers full of millions of nurdles during transportation.
Coastal communities near major ports or shipping lanes are at particular risk, but once in the sea nurdles can spread far and wide.
Groups all over the world are calling for governments, industry and the International Maritime Organization to make changes to prevent future nurdle spills at sea.
MSC Elsa 3 Sinking
Location of spill: Arabian Sea, India
Date: 25th May 2025
On 25th May 2025, the MSC Elsa 3 sank off the coast of Kerala, India, releasing millions of plastic pellets into the ocean. By 27 May, beaches in Kerala were littered with both loose pellets and 25 kg bags.
In the weeks following, pellets spread far beyond the spill site, reaching Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka, and impacting huge areas of sensitive habitats such as the newly established Dhanushkodi Greater Flamingo Sanctuary.
Solong & Stena Immaculate Collision
Location of spill: North Sea, United Kingdom
Date: 10 March 2025
Just two months before the MSC Elsa 3 disaster, on 10 March 2025, the container ship Solong collided with the oil tanker Stena Immaculate 13 miles off England’s east coast. The collision and subsequent fire caused multiple containers to fall into the sea, some of which contained plastic pellets.
Within days, both loose pellets and melted clumps were washing up along the Lincolnshire and Norfolk coastlines, including within protected conservation areas.
X-Press Pearl Disaster
Location of spill: Sri Lanka
Date: 20 May 2021
The X-Press Pearl incident remains the world’s worst recorded pellet spill. After catching fire and sinking off Sri Lanka’s west coast, the vessel released over 1,600 tonnes around 84 billion pellets into the sea.
During the initial stages, a 100 km stretch of beach was entirely covered in pellets, eventually spreading across 700 km of coastline. Marine animals, mistaking pellets for fish eggs, ingested them, and contaminated fish were reported from across the island.
Since this disaster, the Sri Lankan Supreme Court has ordered the owners and others linked to the X-Press Pearl ship to pay $1 billion for the environmental damage caused.
The MSC Elsa 3 spill now adds to this ongoing legacy of plastic pollution from the X-Press Pearl disaster.
Solutions
There is a clear need to introduce measures to stop any further nurdle loss at sea, to prevent large pollution disasters and ongoing loss of nurdles. The following measures are those being pursued by organisations to tackle nurdle loss specifically at sea. However, it is important these solutions compliment other measures to nurdle loss on land to ensure that nurdles are handled and transported correctly throughout the whole plastics supply chain, ultimately resulting in zero nurdle loss to the environment.
Organisations working on sea based solutions
(Please note Fidra is not endorsing these organisations or their work we are simply helping you find people who may be working on nurdle pollution by listing them below)
If you are working on this issue and want to be listed please add yourself to our directory here