Contact Rick at https://my.captivate.fm/rf@richardfriedman.net ( rf@richardfriedman.net) Copy and Paste to connect to the links below. https://www.nurdlehunt.org.uk/ (https://www.nurdlehunt.org.uk/) https://crankyuncle.com/ (https://crankyuncle.com/) https://skepticalscience.com/ (https://skepticalscience.com/) https://www.freetheocean.com/ (https://www.freetheocean.com/) https://www.freekibble.com/ (https://www.freekibble.com/) https://billyidol.net/billy-never-idles/ (https://billyidol.net/billy-never-idles/) Rick's latest short story collection https://www.amazon.com/Climate-Carol-Other-Cli-Fi-Stories-ebook/dp/B07MVN8J6P (https://www.amazon.com/Climate-Carol-Other-Cli-Fi-Stories-ebook/dp/B07MVN8J6P) https://www.ecosia.org/ (https://www.ecosia.org/) https://www.ekoru.org/about/ (https://www.ekoru.org/about/) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_wine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_wine) https://dceff.org/ (https://dceff.org/) Speaker 1 (https://www.rev.com/transcript-editor/Edit?token=FM158_8nNgaJcmRKZ-mTzLWicDYMyzbVbRKnWRXJC2ya-QnBSHnwedRvHkl2h5_ceBwh4YHMOgdR5WllOOv8SqFmHcI&loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&ts=0.1 (00:00)): Narrator]. Welcome to A Breath of Fresh Earth, taking the commitment to a clean environment to the next level. Your host Rick Friedman, will crown the climate hero and villain of the week along with discussing worldwide environmental issues, showcasing new products designed with the longevity of our planet in mind, and putting the spotlight on the individuals making a big impact in helping the climate and pollution crisis through social media. Now your host, Rick Friedman. Hi and welcome to episode three. I was going to talk about fracking on this episode, but there's a special event in progress and I wanted to make sure you knew about it while it was still going on. Fracking will be the featured segment on the next show. Instead, this episode is about the great nurdle hunt. When I was a kid, we had scavenger hunts. Last year many kids played Pokemon go searching neighborhoods for Pokemon. What other things can you search for? Rick (https://www.rev.com/transcript-editor/Edit?token=Kb4302waSb8Pk3NR7b-yi5VUXPFpKTZ1-egitJmUw2q9_454BhZltkUMN098Y0aFMg5XQ0CJUSz7Xt-5KO9EZid3URE&loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&ts=66.56 (01:06)): Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Time's up. Did any of you say a nurdle? A nurdle? What's a nurdle. Nurdles are small plastic pellets. That's the raw material used to make items out of plastic. The nurdles are melted and formed to make the desired product. Nurdles are small. They're less than five millimeters in size about the size of a lentil. They start out small and over time they fragment into smaller particles and they take hundreds to thousands of years to degrade and disappear. These little pieces of plastic can be mistaken for food by smaller animals lower down on the food chain. Even tiny animals like plankton, once they eat them, microscopic plastic particles can pass straight into an animal's bloodstream and get stuck in their tissues. Unlike larger pieces of plastic, there is no practical way of removing these nurdles from the sea. This is why we need to stop nurdle pollution at the source. Rick (https://www.rev.com/transcript-editor/Edit?token=6H2RVXJBMMYv3EzT7DwQx29hrocA03t6D0wQkhCVF4htupwaGMn_RaMGslyrSLMX35hwNkfcvSnlYgbwlE4RisYUl8M&loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&ts=118.01 (01:58)): How do they get there? Accidental spills can happen wherever nurdles are handled or transported. This happens during production or during transportation or on the way to the manufacturers of plastic products and then again when the goods are recycled back into nurdles, they're so small light and most of them float in water and they're easily blown around or washed up into drains. Nurdles can find their way into storm drains and carried out to sea. Once they're in the sea, they spread quickly and widely, and as a result, you can find them pretty much anywhere from the... Support this podcastSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/a-breath-of-fresh-earth/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy