Tiny plastic balls called “nurdles” are washing up on beaches all over the world and that’s not good but even worse is that there doesn’t seem to be much that people can do to hold the companies responsible accountable. Is it time to look towards sticker laws to punish bad actors?

Nurdles are a key component to plastic manufacturing. Just about every plastic thing that exists started off as a pile of these small balls. Losing track of them is also really common in plastic manufacturing. The balls end up all over the ecosystem and unlike micro-plastics, these are very visible to the naked eye. The problem is so large and common that it’s hard to even track where they are coming from.

But even when people are able to establish where the nurdles came from, there is very little done. Companies are fined but continue to pollute. It appears that the current model isn’t enough to keep companies from continuing their harmful ways.