Take Action on Plastic Pellet Pollution

Every year, another 10 TRILLION plastic pellets are entering the ocean. These pellets are notoriously hard to clean up. Sometimes, authorities don't even try.1

Plastic pellets are polluting our waterways and threatening our health. Tell Gov. J. B. Pritzker: Take action on plastic pellet pollution.

Almost every plastic item is made from nurdles, which are manufactured from gas or oil, shipped to factories, and then melted and poured into molds to make just about every plastic product in existence, from plastic bags to plastic bottles.2

Nurdles often spill during manufacturing or transport -- and once in our environment, they find their way into our rivers, lakes and oceans.

It's like an oil spill, just in a different form.

Often, polluters don't face any consequences when nurdles are spilled. So, here's an idea: Let's stop the harmful practice of dumping nurdles into waterways. Send a message to our governor today.

Nurdles don't just pollute the environment -- they can absorb toxic chemicals like DDT, PCBs and mercury, too. When a nurdle is accidentally swallowed by a fish or a bird, any absorbed chemicals come with it.3

That's bad news for us too. As the chemicals make their way up the food chain, we can be exposed to toxins and suffer health consequences.

For the sake of the environment, our health and wildlife, PIRG is working to stop those trillions of nurdles from entering our waterways every year.

You can help join the cause by sending a message to Gov. Pritzker today.

Thank you,

Abe Scarr
Director
Illinois PIRG

1. Lisa Frank and Kelly Leviker, "We're campaigning for Microplastic Free Waters," PIRG, April 16, 2024.
2. Neel Dhamesha, "The massive, unregulated source of plastic pollution you've probably never heard of," Vox, May 6, 2022.
3. Lisa Frank and Kelly Leviker, "We're campaigning for Microplastic Free Waters," PIRG, April 16, 2024.