Nurdles found at beach clean up
Farmers may be able to play a small part in helping keep Southland’s beaches clean.
Sea Shepherd Southland coordinator Grant Meikle said an idea of how to rid beaches of nurdles, or small pieces of plastic, was devised at a clean-up at Monkey Island on Saturday.
‘‘We were having a little bit of a brain storm as we were collecting rubbish.
‘‘We want to set up drums with water in them and put sieves over the top. Then we can scoop the top layer of sand into them and the nurdles will be removed from the sand.’’ Drums used on farms would be ideal for the job and he hoped some could be donated, he said.
‘‘They’ll work a treat next time.’’ About 200 people turned out to help clean the beach on Saturday.
‘‘I thought it was awesome. I was actually shocked at the turnout.’’ He estimated about 250kgs of rubbish was collected.
‘‘There was a lot of blue strapping stuff – you could see the fibres. There were a lot of rubber rings that are used for lambs tails and shot gun wads that we guessed had come down the Waiau River and been washed up on the beach in the current.
‘‘What was really surprising was the amount of small plastic pieces, or nurdles, that were washed up. There seems to be a beach full of them in each region depending on tides and this is one of those.’’ Meikle said he had spoken to residents who picked up a lot of plastic from Australia on the beach.