Sri Lanka's beaches still recovering from 2021 cargo ship disaster

Four years after the X-Press Pearl cargo ship disaster, Sri Lanka's beaches continue to grapple with a lasting toxic legacy. Billions of plastic nurdles, along with toxic chemicals and heavy metals spilled from the ship, have polluted the environment. While initial cleanups removed hundreds of millions of nurdles, the remaining microplastics are becoming harder to find as they embed deeper into the sand. New research suggests these nurdles are accumulating further pollution, potentially increasing their toxicity and posing a more enduring threat to marine life than initially understood.