The minuscule spheres, typically less than 5 millimeters in diameter, are the basic building blocks of nearly all plastic ...

Former EPA official Judith Enck explains why plastic pollution is a production problem—and how policy, not recycling, can ...

Bright blue pellets pooled along the edge of Pocono Creek on Monday, days after and miles away from the site of a tractor-trailer crash that spilled thousands of pounds of plastic into a nearby stream ...

Look on the side of a highway sometime and you might see them. Or along the railroad tracks or a stream. Maybe even between your toes at the beach. Tiny pearl-shaped pieces of plastic, known as ...

Spanish state prosecutors are investigating the presence of numerous small plastic pellets along the northwest coastline, spilled from a transport ship. There are fears that the pellets may have toxic ...

Editor’s note: This is the second entry in a series examining the causes, impacts and solutions to plastic pollution in the Great Lakes. Read the first, third and fourth entries here. BENTON HARBOR, ...

In a blow to local wildlife and coastal communities, countless tiny plastic pellets are littering the waters and beaches along Spain’s northern coast after containers filled with the stuff fell off a ...

Almost six months after a cargo ship spilled millions of plastic pellets into the Mississippi River, large numbers of the pellets, known as "nurdles," are again washing up on riverbanks in New Orleans ...

Trillions of small plastic pellets known as nurdles have been escaping from petrochemical plants into waterways and oceans for decades. Only lately has serious action been taken to figure out what can ...

Researchers in Scotland have made an unsettling discovery. Puffins on the Isle of May are nibbling on nurdles, the little nuggets that serve as raw materials for plastics manufacturing. Needless to ...

This story is part of a joint investigation with NPR that includes the documentary Plastic Wars, which aired March 31, 2020, on PBS. Stream the film. Look on the side of a highway sometime and you ...