Do you know your nurdles?
Beaches can often look pristine from a distance, but take a seat on the sand and scratch beneath the surface and amongst the grains and seaweed chances are you will find plastic nurdles.
They are lentil-sized plastic pellets, used as a raw material in the manufacture of plastics. But almost 75% of our beaches are littered with them, and they pose a real problem to the wildlife who inhabit our UK coastline.
As a result of the Great Winter Nurdle Hunt Survey (it’s still not too late to take part!), it is now estimated that up to 53 billion nurdles escape into the UK environment every year, during the production, transportation or use of plastic products.
The nurdles are often spilt accidentally into rivers and oceans or fall into drains where they are washed out to sea. Experts warn that nurdles can soak up chemical pollutants from their surroundings and then release toxins into the animals that eat them.
How can we help? Well educating our children against the problem is one measure, and so we have partnered with A Tale Unfolds, to bring this message into schools using their 15 lesson classroom resource, The Plastic Times. Which uses footage from The Plastic Project and details our very own efforts to reduce marine pollution. Spread the word to your kids’ schools, or your school teacher friends, and let’s teach our children that nurdles are not normal. With our children poised to be tomorrow’s consumers, let’s put them in a position which helps them make the most informed choices and pressure the companies of tomorrow to be more careful with the nurdles they use.
