HeraldNet - Snohomish County's online news source
Heraldnet.com
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2009 2:20 am
LocalNorthwestNation & WorldPoliticsSpecial ReportsPhotosColumnistsMultimedia 
RECENT POSTS:
• Dark Days Challenge: Week 3: What to cook this weekend? Local squash soup!   December 4

• Dark Days Challenge: Week 2  November 27

• Celebrate Buy Nothing Day in Everett  November 24

• Turn your used turkey-frying oil into biofuels.  November 23

• Dark Days Challenge: Week 1  November 19
Archives:
Twitter Updates
    LINKS:

    Eat Local
    • Eat Wild
     • Get Fresh
     • Pacific Northwest Cheese Project
     • Puget Sound Fresh
     • Tilth Producers
     • Urban Hennery (Everett)
    Eco Friendly
    • Ask Umbra
     • EcoConsumer
     • Green Everett
     • Green Gardening Tips
     • Grist
     • Living Sustainably in Snohomish County
    Recycling
    • 2good2toss
     • E-Cycle Washington
     • Freecycle
     • PC Recycle
     • Recycle with Karen (Everett)
     • Snohomish County Solid Waste
     • The Story of Stuff
    RELATED ARTICLES:
    • Nation, World Briefs: California may ease rules for diesel trucks  December 10
    • Burn ban throughout Puget Sound, Cowlitz County  December 9
    • EPA chief: U.S. must make up for lost time on climate  December 9
    • Phone app helps find birds  December 9
    • Burn ban issued in Snohomish County  December 8
    • U.N.: 2000-2009 likely warmest decade on record  December 8
    • EPA: Greenhouse gases endanger human health  December 7
    • Last, best chance? U.N. climate conference opens  December 7
    • Climate summit may have happy ending, U.N. says  December 7
    • Community calendar  December 6
     

    ADVERTISEMENT
    Eco Geek
    May 29, 2009

    Wikimedia Commons (click to enlarge)
    These are nurdles, pieces of plastic ready to be melted and treated to become plastic products.
     
    ADVERTISEMENT
     

    What’s a nurdle? You're soaking in it.


    Posted at 8:30 am by Sarah Jackson

    Nurdles are 5-millimeter-diameter pre-production plastic pellets manufactured by the bazillions and melted into myriad plastic products, including, probably, parts of the computer you’re using right now.

    They are, according to this Sierra Club story, the beginning of plastic’s “life cycle,” ending with oceans polluted in ways unfathomably large and small.

    • Large: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, now at least twice the size of Texas is the largest garbage dump in the world. According to the Sierra Club, it might be much larger, “as much as 5 million square miles, or one and a half times the size of the United States. Sailors encounter it within 500 miles of the California coast and 200 miles off Japan.”


    • Small: Ocean-going plastics, however, don’t just stick together in a tidy gyre in the water. Plastics eventually break down.
      Entire beaches are now saturated with tiny grains of plastics, including “Hawaii's Kamilo Beach, which has been called the most plasticized beach in the world.”
      Some pieces of plastic are tiny, “specks of polypropylene, polyethylene and polyester as small as 20 microns across, narrower in breadth than a human hair.”


    What do you think of all this plastic pollution? Write me here to share your thoughts or comment below.

    (Thanks to Karen Erickson of Everett for sending the Sierra link.)
    READER COMMENTS
    Be the first to comment.
    You must be a registered user and verify your e-mail address to post comments to blogs or articles on HeraldNet.

    To register, click here. To read other terms and conditions, click here.
    Log in or register to post new comment | Log out
      Return to Eco Geek
    View All Coupons

    75% OFF
    Many Items. Hurry!
    Eagle Furniture

    Buy 1 Dinner Entree
    Get 2nd 50% Off
    Changs Mongolian Grill

    25% off Bath & Groom
    New Customers
    Smokey Point Grooming

    Over 1 Million Lights
    Lights of Christmas
    Warm Beach Camp

    $5 Off
    Stylecut
    Third Dimension Salon

    $2 OFF
    at Box Office
    Everett Silvertips

    Holiday Specials
    up to 25% off!
    Wild Birds Unlimited

    FREE 6 lb. Pad w/
    40yd Carpet Purchase
    Completely Floored

    20% Off Re-Upholstery
    or Custom Furniture!
    Flick's Upholstery

    Buy 1 Get 1 FREE
    Lube Oil Filter
    American Car Care Center

    15% Off
    All Repairs!
    AAMCO Trasmissions

    Oil - Snohomish County
    Low Prices - Fill Now!
    American Distributing

    $95 Dryer Vent Cleaning!
    $99 Whole House Duct Cleaning!
    Air Ductors

    $2.99 Chili Dog
    $3.99 Fish Burger
    50th Street Burger

    Special Rebate Offers!
    Plus Additional 30% OFF!
    Budget Blinds

    Nutcracker
    Family Packs Available
    Pacific Northwest Ballet

    Holiday Getaway
    $99 dbl Occupancy
    Manresa Castle

    20% Off Dinner
    Up to $75 Value!
    Sockeye's Restaurant

    Always Free
    Transmission Diagnostic
    Danas Transmission

    $5 Off
    Stylecut
    Third Dimension Salon
    TODAY'S TOP JOBS
     View All Top Jobs 
    Top Cars
    >> view all top cars
    >> view all cars
    Top Homes
    >> view all top homes
    >> view all homes

    ADVERTISEMENT
    |Contact Us |Advertiser Services |Home Delivery |Newsstand Locations |Classifieds |Feedback |About the Company |Work@the Herald |Site Map
    © 2009 The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA.