Plastic pellet pollution on our coast
Saturday 8 August 2026
Nurdles are the lentil-sized plastic pellets used as raw material in manufacturing. Following a spill at the Port of Tyne they have been washing up along beaches across the North East, and once they work into the sand they are extremely difficult to clear.
Volunteers have set up a board to coordinate the response, with information on where clean-ups are happening, what equipment helps, and a template for writing to elected representatives to press for a proper large-scale collection effort at the right tide times.
Port of Tyne nurdle spill volunteer board
There is also a petition to Parliament asking the UK to bring in binding rules on pellet loss, matching new EU legislation, so that large handlers of plastic pellets have to produce risk management plans and submit to independent audits. It is open until 13 September 2026, and needs 10,000 signatures to get a response from the Government.