Protecting the Texas coast from plastic pellet pollution

Plastic pollution is hurting the Texas coast by littering our beaches, injuring wildlife, endangering the seafood industry, and even risking our health.

Plastic pellets (also called nurdles), powders and flakes are a growing source of this plastic pollution, and they are the raw material that is used to make familiar plastic products like water bottles, grocery bags and polystyrene foam. They are small, cheap and easily contaminated. They are so small in fact, they are often discharged by plastics manufacturers or spilled during transport – generally with no consequences for the companies responsible. 

Experts and citizen scientists have documented pellet dumping and spills across Texas. Millions of pellets have been collected by volunteers and examined by experts along the Texas Gulf Coast in the last decade. In 2019, a record $50 million penalty judgement was levied against Formosa Plastics for illegal discharges of nurdles into the bays surrounding its Point Comfort, Texas plant. Despite the judgement, the problem is still widespread. 

The plastics industry is rapidly expanding along the Gulf Coast and Texas is among the largest producers and exporters of plastic pellets. 6,765,977 tons of plastic were exported from the Port of Houston alone in 2022, and the port by itself accounts for over 38% of all pellet shipments. That coupled with plastic production expected to triple by 2060 will almost certainly mean increased pollution unless adequate measures are taken to curb these kinds of discharges.

Now is the time. The Texas Legislature must take action in 2025 to protect our coast, our families, and the economy from plastic pellets. 

Policy recommendations:

• Give the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality:
  • Clear authority and direction to regulate preproduction plastic pollution 
  • Resources to conduct audits of plastics facilities at least every three years
• Require plastics facilities to: 
  • Record and report to TCEQ any pellet, powder or flake releases or spills outside a facility 
  • Conduct monthly self audits to identify measures that prevent the ways pellets, powders and flakes are being released into the environment
  • Monitor wastewater and stormwater for pellet, powder or flake pollution
  • File an annual report to TCEQ on results of audits
• Add plastics inspections to the Multi-Sector General Permit for stormwater 
• Add preproduction plastics to list of Class II industrial solid wastes