Local environmentalist and ‘beach clean’ organiser Andy Dinsdale and friend Sandy Spencer have taken beach cleaning a step further.
On Thursday, February 14 they did a nurdle/bio-bead survey for ‘The Great Nurdle Hunt‘ at Cuckmere River, south of Alfriston, and the following day repeated the exercise on Camber Beach. Each of them roped off a square-metre plot and on hands and knees spent two hours picking out scores of nurdles (3 – 5mm wide) which are pre-production plastics (all plastic bottles, cups and more are from nurdles.) Bio-beads, less than 0.5mm in size, and micro plastics are used in filtering waste in water treatment plants.
These nurdles, believed to be a spill from the manufacturers, eventually end up in the sea and are washed up on to beaches where they are mistaken for food by many marine animals and sea birds. The nurdles are indigestible and can cause the death of the creature that has eaten them and, in the case of fish, the toxin coating the nurdles can enter the human food chain.
More details about ‘The Great Nurdle Hunt’ and general information about the dangers can be found at the nurdle hunt website.
Image Credits: Andy Dinsdale .