Julianna Washburn/HPM

On Nov. 7, Laura Leavitt knelt on the Galveston shore beside her best friend, picking tiny bits of plastic out of the sand. The two friends were among around 20 other volunteers working piece by piece to help rid the beach of nurdles — small plastic pellets used to create plastic products such as soda bottles or cottage cheese containers.

" What we don’t take care of circles back to us, and I think just from picking up a piece of trash in your neighborhood, you’re contributing," Leavitt said.

The group of volunteers was part of Environment Texas and the Turtle Island Restoration Network 's Galveston cleanup. Along with continued nurdle beach cleanups , the groups also recently asked state leaders for more nurdle regulation since they said the pe

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