‘Nurdles’ pollute our oceans as hundreds of thousands of plastic pellets found on coastline

Nurdles are tiny plastic pellets used in the manufacture of larger plastic products, as Ella Glover explains

It is estimated 230,000 tonnes - trillions of nurdles - could be lost to the oceans globally, every year (PA)

Hundreds of thousands of plastic pellets, known as nurdles, have been found on the coastlines of 21 countries that took part in a pollution survey.

Research by environmental charity Fidra found that 21 out of the 23 countries (91 percent) surveyed found the lentil-sized pellets on their beaches.

The 23 countries involved in the survey were: United Arab Emirates, Australia, Belgium, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Spain, United Kingdom, Guernsey, Greece, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, United States, South Africa and Italy.