It is now over a week since nurdles starting spilling into the North Sea following a shipping incident in the Port of Tyne. From day one communities have been offering to help but they were initially advised by Councils not to get involved in the clean up. Questions are being asked about the speed of the response and the clarity of information provided but one thing is clear the community response is amazing.
When pollution strikes, communities step up
Fidra were back on Tyneside yesterday, where millions of plastic pellets continue to wash ashore. The recent nurdle spill shows both the devastating impact of plastic pollution and the incredible commitment of communities determined to respond. Local residents, community groups and families, the majority of which had never heard of nurdles before, were keen to immediately lend a hand.
However, the most affected communities were left waiting for information, guidance or permission to take action. Delays to specialist clean-up operations, and inconsistent advice from local authorities, meant people were expected to sit back and watch as nurdles accumulated on their beaches and spread along the coastline. For many, this was unacceptable.
Alice Laverty, co-owner of Keel Row Books in Whitley Bay, was one of the first volunteers to take matters into her own hands and begin cleaning the beach. “What made me realise I should get down there and start cleaning up was the contradictory advice we were getting from the council, which said we should avoid touching the nurdles but that the beaches were still safe to enjoy. Both can’t be true at the same time.”
In an environmental incident, there are understandable challenges around safety, evidence gathering and ensuring clean-up efforts are effective. But there is also a need to recognise that communities are not simply bystanders. Community energy is an asset that emergency responses should be designed to harness rather than restrict whilst ensuring safety of all.
“Community action is very important, people should feel empowered to help. To be told not to help is bad for a community, it keeps us apart and stops us from having a collective purpose” explains Helen SmithMcGuire, a resident of Cullercoats.
The response to this spill has demonstrated something powerful: communities are ready to act. They care deeply about protecting their coastline, supporting local wildlife and ensuring these places remain safe and beautiful for future generations.
Helen stressed “To see a community take over without any need for direct leadership, where people are just stepping up themselves, has been beautiful. We have simply empowered people to do what they already knew they could do.”
The level of drive, hard work and innovation we have seen from communities has been incredible, and heartwarming to see the lengths people will go to protect their environment. Jen Stobs from Seaton Sluice, has been one of the volunteers helping to make mesh bags to help with nurdle collection. “It’s been about five years since I last used my sewing machine so it took me a while to thread it, but then I put some 90s rave music on and just got in the zone. I’ve made about 60 bags so far which will also eventually get reused by Nurdle UK for future beach cleanups.”
Communities should not have to clean up preventable pollution
This extraordinary community effort also highlights a wider problem: volunteers should not be the last line of defence against industrial pollution.
Plastic pellets or nurdles are the raw materials used to make most plastic products and should never enter the environment. Once released, they are incredibly difficult to remove. Some can be collected from beaches, but others can be carried out to sea, buried in sediment or ingested by wildlife before they are ever found. Despite the efforts of communities, many of the nurdles released by the spill will be haunting our coastline for years to come.
Community clean-ups are vital, but they cannot be the solution to a problem that begins much earlier in the supply chain. Clean up often needs both specialist support and equipment as well as community involvement. When the clean-up companies leave the community must not be left to pick up the pieces alone. Communities deserve on-going support, a long-term plan and a voice in decision making on clean up.
Preventing plastic pollution at source
Preventing plastic pollution requires stronger action from those responsible for producing, transporting and handling these materials.
It requires robust measures to prevent spills, greater transparency about risks and accountability when pollution occurs. The costs and responsibility for preventing pollution must sit with those who create the risk, not with communities who volunteer their time to clean it up.
A beach clean can remove some of the pollution we see, but only stronger prevention measures will stop it happening in the first place.
A powerful connection between people and place
The public response to the pellet spill sends a powerful message: people care deeply about their environment and are willing to take action to protect it.
Every bucket filled with plastic pellets represents someone’s time, effort and care for the natural world. Every volunteer on a beach is a reminder of how much these places mean to people.
Across the country, people are connected to their local beaches, rivers and landscapes in a way that goes far beyond simply visiting them. They volunteer their time to remove litter, protect wildlife, monitor pollution and restore habitats. They do this because these places matter, they are part of people’s identity, their communities and their everyday lives.
Turning public passion into policy action
The passion is already there. The willingness to act is already there. What we need now is policy that matches the determination of communities, ensuring that future generations inherit beaches where the most important clean-up is the one that never needs to happen. At Fidra, the organisation behind the Great Nurdle Hunt, we are calling for prevention through regulation, preparedness plans, as well as getting polluted places cleaned up. Too many communities have had to put up with too much plastic pellet pollution for too long, pellet pollution has to stop.