The Great Global Nurdle Hunt has launched today at the International Marine Debris Conference in Busan, Korea and we've already had some nurdle hunt results submitted to our map from around the world! Join hundreds of other groups, organisations and individuals in the worldwide search for nurdles, read more to find out how to get involved!
Left: A nurdle found in Busan, Korea whilst launching the Great Global Nurdle Hunt at the International Marine Debris Conference. Right: credit: Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation
What are nurdles?
Nurdles are small plastic pellets about the size of a lentil. Trillions are produced to make nearly all our plastic products. BUT billions of these pellets are lost to the environment from spills and mishandling by industry every year. Plastic is being lost to the environment before it has even been made into anything useful. The Great Global Nurdle Hunt is a community science project which asks anyone to head to your local beach or river search for nurdles and let us know if you find any.
Why we need you
Building evidence of this problem is crucial to show industry and governments that nurdle pollution needs to stop. We want to see national and regional legislation which mandates measures to stop nurdle loss across the plastics supply chain. The more people take part, the greater the pressure becomes for governments and industry to step up. Everyone can get involved in collecting evidence and raising awareness of the problem and you will be playing a crucial role, so thank you!!
How to take part
Taking part in a nurdle hunt is really easy. All you have to do is:
- Head to chosen location anytime between 20th Sep – 17th Oct
- Count and record the number of nurdles you find
- Record the number of people hunting
- Record how long you were hunting for (Minimum 10 minutes)
- Submit your data to our map! Even if you found 0 nurdles
Download our resources!
To make things easier, we have prepared some resources for you. You can download the resources here. Each participant pack includes:
- A briefing document for this year’s event – this should tell you everything you need to know on how to organise a nurdle hunt!
- A Social Media Toolkit for raising awareness/promoting your own event.
- A top tips guide for nurdle hunting.
- A Nurdle ID chart/recording form.
- Promotional posters, images, logos, and social media tiles.
If you can't organise a nurdle hunt this year, you can still get involved by helping to spread the word about nurdles and encourage others to take part. Download our promotional toolkit to help you raise awareness of this issue.
Make sure to follow the events on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and we are even on TikTok now!
Thank you so much for taking part!