Spain Politicians Bicker As Plastic 'Nurdle' Spill Swamps Beaches

Tiny 'nurdles', the building blocks for most plastic products, are often ingested by fish and birds (Credit: AFP)

Dozens of volunteers used strainers to sift sand at beaches in northwestern Spain on Tuesday to collect millions of tiny plastic pellets that have washed up in recent days, endangering wildlife.

The minuscule pellets, called nurdles, began arriving on the coast of Spain's Galicia region after six containers fell from a Liberia-registered ship on December 8 as it headed from the Spanish port of Algeciras to Rotterdam in the Netherlands.