Spilled plastics from the M/V X-Press Pearl disaster were collected from Pamunugama Beach, Sri Lanka, on May 25, 2021 (5 days after the fire began), and stray plastic related to the spill was collected from Sarakkuwa Beach, Sri Lanka, on January 17, 2022 (eight months after the spill). The two beaches are ~2 km apart. The recovered plastic was shipped to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Woods Hole, MA, USA) and stored at 4 ºC as collected. All plastic was manipulated using solvent-rinsed stainless-steel tweezers. The material was visually sorted according to the categories operationally defined by de Vos et al. and James et al. , i) white nurdles, ii) burnt plastic, and iii) excised pieces of combustion remnant (Figure ). Samples from each category were previously analyzed for their PAH content. 9 Orange and gray nurdles were not assayed because of limited sample quantity, and previous assessments demonstrated that their PAH composition reflected that of burnt plastic pieces. To provide a contrast to the complexity of the white nurdle and pyroplastic released during M/V X-Press Pearl spill, polyethylene nurdles from the M/V CMA CGA Bianca spill were also analyzed. These nurdles were released without exposure to additional chemicals from the ship or transformed by heat and combustion. Nurdles from the M/V CMA CGA Bianca pellet spill were graciously provided by Professor Mark Benfield (Louisiana State University). The nurdles were collected on August 13, 2020 (11 days after the spill) from the riverbank area of Chalmette Battlefield in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.