Plastic pellets on trains: a disaster waiting to happen

A quick internet search of “train derailment” and “plastic pellet” results in numerous pages of tragic stories of trains derailing, plastic pellets spilling and costly clean-ups. In fact, every Class I freight train company, which the U.S. government defines as having revenues of more than $250 million per year, has had a train derailment that has resulted in a major plastic pellet spill. Often, millions of these tiny, lentil-sized plastics end up in surrounding waterways. Unfortunately, not much has been done to prevent these derailments or spills– so these accidents are just waiting to happen. 

Tiny plastic pellets play a big role in plastic manufacturing

Plastic production is on the rise globally and within the United States. U.S. plastic producers generally create plastic with gas, with the aid of catalysts and high temperatures. In 2021, North America produced 18% of the world’s plastic, with most of the continent’s plastic industry facilities concentrated in the United States. The U.S. also was the world’s largest exporter of plastics in 2021.

Some of these facilities produce plastic pellets, also known as nurdles. These pellets, no larger than 5 mm, are the cornerstones of plastic manufacturing. They are the first recognizable plastic product after its converted from oil or gas. They are produced en masse, and while the general population rarely sees them, manufacturers use them to make the ubiquitous plastic products — everything from single-use plastic bags and kids’ toys, to car bumpers.

The small size of plastic pellets makes it convenient for manufacturers to transport them to companies further along the plastic supply chain that will melt and mold the plastic pellets to form plastic products familiar to people. While plastic pellets’ tiny size may be convenient for the plastic supply chain, it makes it too easy for transporters to lose or spill large quantities. A recent Pew report estimated that 10 trillion plastic pellets end up in our oceans every year.

Plastic pellets are being spilled along railway tracks

Trains are the primary mode of transportation for plastic pellets within the United States. Due to historic reasons, many trains run adjacent to waterways, which puts many waterways at risk of plastic pellet pollution. 

Major pre-production plastic manufacturers within the U.S. are often directly connected to rail lines which take their products by hopper car to the next location within the supply chain. 

Each plastic pellet hopper car typically carries up to 220,000 pounds of pellets. 22,000 high density polyethylene pellets weigh about a pound. That means up to billions of pellets can fit into a single rail car. Plastic pellets easily spill when being loaded in and out of rail cars, and once loaded in, can leak from valves and other openings not being closed or used properly. As a result, plastic pellets have been found along train tracks– often finding their way into waterways and eventually the ocean.

Video of plastic pellets leaking from train car.

The San Diego Coastkeeper and the Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation filed a notice of intent to sue BNSF on April 2, 2024, over alleged Clean Water Act violations involving chronic plastic pellet loss into coastal lagoons and the Pacific Ocean, which may be the first lawsuit against a rail company for alleged plastic pellet pollution. The lawsuit had not been filed at the time of this article’s publication, according to an attorney from San Diego Coastkeeper. BNSF’s railway lines cross nearly every coastal wetland in San Diego County, thus endangering the remaining 5% of California’s original coastal wetlands. 

All six class I freight railroad companies have had derailments involving plastic pellets within the past 10 years.

Six class I freight railroad companies  – Union Pacific, BNSF, CSX, Canadian National Railway, Norfolk Southern, and the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Southern Railway — operate within the United States, utilizing around 140,000 miles of freight railways. All have had train derailments within the past 10 years that resulted in major plastic pellet spills. 

Trains derail at an alarming rate and some of these trains carry plastic pellets; there were more than 1,000 rail derailments in 2022. Neither the U.S., nor the International Maritime Association, consider plastic pellets “hazardous pollutants,” so there is no centralized database of recorded plastic pellet spills. Also, it’s unclear which, if any, federal agency is responsible for cleaning up plastic pellet spills. We do not really know how many, nor how frequently, plastic pellets are spilled. In addition, when someone needs to file a report with the National Response Center, they are not required to specify if a spill involved plastic pellets, like they need to for pollutants classified as hazardous. 

However, rail workers will often list the contents of cars when there is a collision or derailment in an incident report compiled by the U.S. Coast Guard’s National Response Center. From this information, some researchers have been able to estimate  how often trains have spilled plastic pellets. At least 148 train derailments have involved pellets, across more than two dozen states between 2010 and 2021, according to information gathered from the National Response Center database by Healthy Gulf’s Community Science Director Scott Eustis.  

One of the most infamous train derailments involving plastic pellets was in 2023, in East Palestine, Ohio. While the spillage of the known carcinogen vinyl chloride was (rightly) the focus of news coverage, it is less known that the derailed train was also carrying polyethylene and polyvinyl plastic pellets. In fact, the car whose wheel bearing failed and overheated was carrying pellets, which then fueled the initial fire. 

Plastic pellet pollution is an environmental disaster

When pellets spill, they can pose numerous problems. Trains and railways can be owned by different companies which can complicate and delay clean-up efforts.

While several plastic-makers have posted their clean-up procedures online, no regulatory standards exist, so the government does not enforce these practices. Compounding the problem, regulators do not apply standardized, enforceable best-practice procedures when pellets spill. This lack of clear guidance on containment strategies means that millions of pellets can be lost due incomplete clean-ups. 

Many communities are unprepared to handle a surprise spill, which means that industry ends up being the party with the experience on how to handle the situation. There can also be confusion as to which regulator should handle clean up, as rail accidents happen on land, but often also affect navigable waterways.

Meanwhile, plastic pellets are lightweight and can spread quickly via wind and waves, moving further downstream or into drainage systems, which often ultimately lead to oceans and lakes. Also, the remediation effort can be tedious and environmentally damaging, as plastic pellets can become entrenched in soil ecosystems and within the roots of plants. This means that for pellet removal to be complete these plants need to be uprooted and the soil ecosystem needs to be disturbed. If the pellets are left within the soil substrate, there is a risk of the pellets leaching chemicals and additives.

Once plastic pellets are in water, they pose risks to fish, turtles and birds, who may mistakenly think the pellets are food such as fish eggs or tadpoles, as they look similar. Plastic pellets act a bit like sponges once in the water. In addition to leaching chemicals and additives, they also absorb toxic chemicals, including DDT, PCBs, and mercury already in the water. These types of pollutants bioaccumulate, meaning they become more concentrated and more toxic as they move up the food chain. If we eat an animal or fish that has ingested nurdles, the plastic and toxic chemicals from that animal may end up in our system, too. Microplastics themselves have been found throughout the human body.

Waterways within the United States are at risk of plastic pellet pollution and this should not be acceptable. We currently do not know the extent of plastic pellet pollution, nor how frequently they are spilled. We need to have measures in place that stop plastic pellet pollution from happening in the first place. The Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act would ban discharges of plastic pellets from facilities or sources that make, use, package or transport them. 

If you see pellets spilled along a railway, please, contact the National Response Center at 1-800-424-8802 and let us know by filling out the nurdle hunt data below.

Below is a list of recent train derailments. This list is intended to provide examples of train derailments, but it is not exhaustive. Canada Pacific Railway and Kansas Southern merged in 2023. The names here correspond to the railway company names at the time of the spills. 

Train Derailments

2000-2010

1. A Union Pacific train derailed on May 27, 2000, in Eunice, Louisiana. Derailed  cars of spilled plastic pellets, along with other chemicals. 

2.A BNSF train derailed on August 5, 2001, in Pinehurst, Texas. Twenty-one cars derailed, many carrying chemicals or plastic pellets.

3. A Union Pacific train derailed on December 16, 2003, near Roseville, California. Twenty-eight cars derailed while coming from Portland, Oregon. Some were carrying plastic pellets and lumber, and a car carrying benzene chloride, which is used to make a type of plasticizer, ruptured.

4. A Union Pacific train derailed on March 8, 2005, near City of Industry, California. 21 freight train cars derailed due to a broken track on a westbound train which contained propylene glycol and a ‘load of plastic pellets’. 

5. A Canadian Pacific Railway derailed on January 21, 2008, in Cavers Cove near Ontario, Canada. Fourteen cars derailed and four slid down the embankment and plastic pellets spilled into Nipigon Bay in Lake Superior.

6. A Union Pacific train derailed near Algoa, Texas on August 22, 2009. Twelve cars derailed, leaving behind a load of plastic pellets.

7. A BNSF train traveling from Barstow, California, to Stockton, California derailed off a track owned by Union Pacific railway on February 20, 2010, near Keene, California. One rail car carrying  plastic pellets caught fire, forcing several nearby residents to evacuate their homes.

2011-2020

8. A Union Pacific train derailed on May 23, 2011, south of Moran, Kansas, when traveling between Kansas City and Fort Worth. Cars of plastic pellets caught fire.. 

9. A BNSF train derailed in Hitchcock, Texas, on July 1, 2011. Seven cars derailed, while traveling from Seadrift, Texas, to Galveston. Some of those cars were carrying plastic pellets that needed to be cleaned up. 

10. A Canadian National Railway train and Wisconsin & Southern Railroad train collided, causing three engines and 10 rail cars to derail on July 20, 2014, in Slinger, Wisconsin. The train was carrying plastic pellets, amongst other things. 

11. A train operated by Canadian National Railway derailed on February 25, 2015, 25 miles northwest of Duluth, Minnesota. More than a dozen cars derailed. Some of the derailed cars were carrying plastic pellets, while others were carrying octene, which is used in the production of polyethylene for plastic. The train was traveling from Winnipeg, Canada, to Superior, Wisconsin.  

12. A Kansas City Southern Railway derailed on June 11, 2015, in Houston while traveling from Beaumont to Kendleton, Texas, on a track operated and maintained by Union Pacific. At least eight rail cars and one locomotive came off the tracks. Some of those were carrying plastic pellets. At least one of the cars fell off a bridge onto a road.

13. A CSX train derailed on July 10, 2016, in Tontogany, Ohio. Six cars derailed from the 215-car-long train. One of the cars spilled pellets, while other cars carried hazardous materials. 

14.  A BNSF train derailed on June 20, 2017, in Boulder, Colorado. One train car carrying plastic pellets flipped over and spilled. 

15.  A CSX train derailed on July 11, 2018, near Atmore, Alabama. Six cars left the tracks and some spilled polyvinyl plastic pellets 

16. A Norfolk Southern train derailed within a railyard along the Lehigh River on August 6, 2019, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Four cars derailed and at least one was carrying plastic pellets. 

2021- Current

17. A train owned by Formosa Plastics Corporation collided with a train owned by Union Pacific on January 22, 2021, in Jackson County, Texas, spilling diesel fuel, oil and plastic pellets. Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ) oversaw the remediation effort. 

18. A CSX train derailed on August 19, 2021, near Greenfield, Indiana. Fourteen rail cars derailed. Eight contained cargo and some of those spilled plastic pellets. 

19. A Union Pacific train derailed on October 29, 2021, near Carlisle, Iowa. About 20 cars derailed and one car fell into the Middle River, leaking polyethylene plastic pellets into that tributary of the Des Moines River. 

20. A Norfolk Southern train derailed on May 26, 2022, in Harmar Township, Pennsylvania. Seventeen cars derailed and nine cars fell into Guys Run Creek, which runs alongside the Allegheny River. Plastic pellets leaked from at least one of those cars. 

21. In the most prominent train accident in recent years, a Norfolk Southern train derailed on February 3, 2023, in East Palestine, Ohio. While Norfolk Southern says 38 cars derailed, the EPA notes that “about 50 cars were affected by the derailment.” Several affected cars contained hazardous materials, including several used to make plastic, such as: vinyl chloride, ethylhexyl acrylate, butyl acrylate, and benzene. Other hopper cars that caught fire were carrying polyethylene and polyvinyl plastic pellets. 

22. A Norfolk Southern train derailed on March 4, 2023, in Springfield Ohio. Twenty-eight cars derailed, including one railway car carrying PVC pellets. The train was heading to Birmingham, Alabama.

23. A Norfolk Southern train derailed on July 17, 2023, in Whitemarsh Township, near Philadelphia. SIxteen train cars derailed and at least one spilled silicone pellets. Other cars were carrying tetrafluoroethylene and polyethylene, which are used to make plastics. It is believed that the train derailed following severe storms that caused a sinkhole to form. 

24. A BNSF train derailed on August 18, 2023, in Moore, Oklahoma. Twenty-two train cars derailed, spilling plastic pellets. 

25. A CSX train derailed on September 23, 2023 in Hyattsville, Maryland. At least nine train cars came off the track and at least one train car spilled what one local environment group called “millions” of recycled polyethylene plastic pellets into the Anacostia River watershed. 

26. A CSX train and Norfolk Southern train collided and derailed on November 17, 2023, in an Atlanta railyard. As a result, an unknown amount of plastic pellets and diesel fuel spilled. 

27. A Pan Am Southern train operated by Berkshire and Eastern Railway derailed on February 7, 2024, in Valley Falls, New York. Ten cars derailed and two railway cars fell into the Hoosic River. The train included three hoppers cars of polypropylene plastic pellets, some of which escaped during the accident. 

28. Three Norfolk Southern trains were involved in collisions that derailed nine rail cars and two locomotives on March 2, 2024, in Lower Saucon Township, Pennsylvania, spilling diesel fuel and polypropylene plastic pellets into the Lehigh River. 

29. A Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) train derailed on July 5, 2024, near Bordulac, North Dakota. Twenty-nine cars derailed and 12 of them were carrying polypropylene plastic pellets.

30. A Wisconsin Southern train derailed on August 14, 2024, in Sherman, Wisconsin when it hit a truck, killing the truck driver. Six cars derailed and one spilled plastic pellets.