When residents along Pittsburgh’s rivers spotted small plastic pellets washing up on their shores, they knew something was wrong. Those pellets, known as nurdles, were leaking from a local Styropek plant, which produces the building blocks of Styrofoam.
Instead of waiting for government regulators to act, community watchdog groups like PennEnvironment and Three Rivers Waterkeeper took matters into their own hands.
In late 2023, they filed a federal lawsuit with support from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. They argued that the company was illegally discharging microplastics into Raccoon Creek and the Ohio River…