I've got a pocket full of Nurdles...

What are nurdles I hear you cry???

I first came across the term in Swanage, where I worked as an Outdoor Tutor during 2012. Spending many hours a week on the sandy beach with groups, we were required to know a fair bit about the marine environment.
At first glance, these tiny blobs look like fish eggs, and therein lies the problem.

Just some of the nurdles found in Swanage 2012

Nurdles are microplastics, which are defined by many as "plastic particles less than 5mm". The most common source of them is as the raw product for the plastics industry:

• They are small and lightweight, meaning you can pack millions into a small space.
• Due to their size, they require less energy to melt down into a moldable form.
• They can be found in a variety of colours, but the most common is white or clear, presumably as colour can be added to the molten liquid in the process.

Nurdles can also come from larger plastic items that are discarded, and get broken down by the elements.

So what are they doing on our beaches?

In January 2007, the MSC Napoli came into difficulty in rough seas off the coast of Cornwall. The crew abandoned ship after it started taking on water through a large gash in the starboard side of the vessel. Two days later, the 275 metre container ship was pulled to Lyme Bay and deliberately beached to limit further damage by the waves. An oil protection boom was set up around the ship to contain any leaked oil (although the fuel tanks were not damaged, the RSPB were called in to assist with the rescue and rehabilitation of 200 gulls and 900 guillemots which were suffering from the effects of the oil.)

The vessel was carrying 2323 containers when it ran aground, and 114 of these were lost overboard. Some of these washed ashore at Branscombe Beach, and hit the headlines as beach combers salvaged everything from BMW motorbikes and car parts to hair products and nappies. Many of these items were found along the channel coastline, causing problems for several National Nature Reserves, including Kimmeridge Bay, part of the Purbeck Marine Wildlife Reserve.

Nurdles mixed with seaweed at Kimmeridge (Photo by Dorset Wildlife Trust)

In July 2007, the ship was broken up using explosive charges following the removal of its cargo. Parts were shipped away for recycling and scrapping. In July 2009, 924 days after the ship first hit difficulties, the operation was officially closed.

Before the Napoli disaster, nurdles weren't that common on beaches in the UK... findings near factory outlets where they had washed down the drains were usually dealt with by local groups and received very little publicity. But since the ship went down they have been found in ever increasing numbers - whether as a direct result of lost cargo from the ship, or of greater awareness following the disaster.

What's the big deal?

As you can see from the photos, nurdles look like fish eggs. And lots of marine creatures like to eat fish eggs, so there's your problem. If a bird or fish eats nurdles, they fill up the stomach, reducing the amount of actual food they can eat, eventually causing them to starve.

The link below shows a short video by Chris Jordan, showing the effects of plastic on the Albatross colony at Midway Island. WARNING - contains some distressing scenes.

Midway Island

Not only do nurdles cause problems for birds that eat them directly, but they can also be eaten by fish, who also mistake them for eggs. We all enjoy a fish supper now and then, and the issues of the declining fish stocks in the sea are well documented, but what remains unclear is whether the decline is purely down to overfishing, or whether other forces are also contributing to the problem. Climate Change is often brought into the discussion, but what about the effects of pollutants, such as microplastics. Most marine creatures die at sea and are lost before we humans can have a look at them to determine the cause of death.

Whilst I would imagine we might notice if our fish had a stomach full of plastic, what is less documented is whether the plastics can leach toxins into the fish, which may be harmful to us. There are some early indications that this may be the case, but these studies are still in the very early stages and full reports may not be available for several years.

What can I do to help?

Currently, there is no organisation or network in the UK (and very few around the world) who look at the distribution of nurdles. It is down to a few individuals with occasional help from local environmental organisations to clean up our beaches and record the findings. Now, before everyone rushes down to the beach on a nurdle hunt, please note that they are not found everywhere... the north west coasts of Wales, England and Scotland appear to be "clean", as far as I know.

In Swanage, the tourist information centre on the seafront has a large bottle where nurdle collections get put. Every year they organise beach cleans and some locals use sieves to collect the nurdles from the sand, although this only works when there is no seaweed in the area. At the Chatsworth Centre (where I worked), we would encourage the groups to collect nurdles into plastic bottles, then at the end of the season we could see which schools had collected the most. At the end of my season, I decided to get crafty and spent several evenings working on some nurdle art... simply gluing them down to create some pictures.

Montage of Sea Creatures

Seahorse

I feel that without further awareness of this serious issue, the government and the plastics industry will continue to ignore the problem. Having recently been to Malta on holiday, I was disturbed to find nurdles on Mellieha Beach, one of the most popular sunbathing beaches on the island. I spent no more than 15 minutes on my hands and knees collecting nurdles with my friend, which resulted in my pocketful of nurdles (which went through security no problem for the return flight!) Maybe naively, I believed that this problem couldn't reach these idyllic island paradises, but obviously I was wrong.

I am now going to do more research into this, and am considering setting up a campaign to raise awareness both here in the UK, and around Europe. If every person who visits a beach spends just 10 minutes collecting nurdles, that could reduce millions from being eaten by our wildlife, and save countless lives. 

Believe me when I say that it's slightly addictive and you won't want to leave a beach until EVERY nurdle is safely stored in a container (plastic bottles are good for this).

If anyone can think of another way of recycling nurdles, please leave a comment. And if you would like to support the campaign, please get in touch.