Minister’s nurdle pledge

A minister has promised action to prevent a repeat of the “horrific” plastic spill that has blighted the North East coast, writes Local Democracy Reporter, Daniel Holland.

An estimated 17 tonnes of small plastic pellets, known as nurdles, poured into the River Tyne in July after a collision between vessel Wind Orca and berthed container ship BG Orange at the Port of Tyne.

More than a billion nurdles are thought to have spilled into the river, continuing to litter beaches as they are carried up and down the North East coastline.

While there has been a mass clean-up operation aided by dedicated teams of local volunteers, it remains unclear how many of the nurdles remain uncollected or where they are.

Campaigners are urging the Government to take tougher action to tighten regulations around how nurdles are transported.

Newcastle North MP and prisons minister Catherine McKinnell joined a Northumberland clean-up session at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea on Thursday morning, organised as part of a community payback programme for low-level offenders.

She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that Government officials “need to understand exactly what happened and look seriously at how we prevent this again”.

The Labour minister added: “I think it has affected the whole of the North East. I have a lot of constituents in Newcastle who are very concerned about this, which is why I was very pleased we were bringing the community payback team here this morning and we have picked up a lot of nurdles this morning. 

“I know how amazing the community has been in going out and getting them picked up, but that should not have been required. We need to look at what has happened and make sure it does not happen again.

“It has happened here in the North East and we have seen it happen previously further south. We need to take the actions necessary to prevent it from happening, because the environmental impacts are horrific.”

It was announced last week that the nurdle recovery operation had moved to a “new phase” – with fewer pellets seen washing up.

Nurdle UK has demobilised from the spill and the large suction equipment used to uncover the nurdles is now “no longer considered the most effective recovery method”, South Tyneside Council said, with extra local labour being brought in to assist specialist contractors Briggs Marine.

Leo Hargreaves, a volunteer and the Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Nextdoor Nature Officer, said that Whitehall “needs to get on top” of the threat posed by nurdles.

They added: “We’ve seen 17 tonnes of nurdles spilled into the Tyne, but an estimated 445,970 tonnes of nurdles enter the environment around the world every year. It’s unbelievable amounts.

“We’ve all seen in the news about how much sewage is getting into our water, and nurdles are yet another piece of the bigger picture. Big companies are polluting our water and environment, and that affects the places where we live, work and spend our time. 

“Local people are out picking up nurdles, and can smell sewage after it rains, because it gets discharged from outlets along the Tyne and the seafront.  We shouldn’t have to accept pollution as part of everyday life. We need to protect our rivers and beaches because a clean environment is important for our health and wellbeing. 

“The Government should make sure nurdles are reclassified as hazardous, tighten regulations around their handling and transport, and support the Clean Water Bill when it goes through Parliament.”

Leo said that the current nurdles situation on the North East’s beaches was “unpredictable” because so many had been washed out to sea.

They added: “Some days people are finding loads washing up and caught in seaweed; other times there are patches hidden under the dry sand. They’re becoming more integrated into our environment, which makes them more difficult to remove as time goes on.”

Thursday’s clean-up in Newbiggin involved offenders sentenced to carry out work to pay back communities for their crimes, rather than serving time in prison.

Ms McKinnell said that it was “really important” for people to see evidence of the justice system in action and that such community schemes can prevent re-offending among criminals convicted of low-level crimes, such as theft or property damage.

She added: “It has better outcomes than a short prison sentence would. For that reason, we want to see as many of these projects as possible.”

After speaking to offenders on the payback programme, she told the LDRS that many had found it “hard” and “don’t want to be doing this in public” – but that some felt it had “taught me that I need to get a job”.