MPs join campaign to rid Forth beaches of plastic pellet menace

Video highlights issue of hundreds of thousands of nurdles being washed up on Firth of Forth shores

MPs on both sides of the Forth have joined forces to fight the menace of nurdles.

SNP MPs Douglas Chapman, who is the member for Dunfermline and West Fife, and Falkirk’s John McNally are working to highlight the problem of plastic waste washing up on beaches around Scotland.

They have launched a video campaign to highlight the issue as part of efforts to rid the Firth of Forth of the tiny plastic pellets and make it a nurdle-free zone.

North Queensferry beach, between the Forth Road Bridge and the Queensferry Crossing, was highlighted in a recent survey as the worst beach for nurdle pollution in Scotland.

It’s estimated more than 450,000 of the pellets have been washed up on the shore there in recent years.

Mr Chapman said: “Nurdles are small plastic pellets about the size of a lentil.

“Billions are used each year in the manufacturing sector to make nearly all of our plastic products, but many end up washing up on our beaches.

“Spills of this raw material can mean nurdles end up at sea, and the seas and oceans around Scotland are now accumulating nurdles in worryingly large numbers.”

He said Sir David Attenborough had shown in his TV series, The Blue Planet, how the objects can harm fish, sea birds and other sealife.

“It is our aim to make the Firth of Forth a nurdle-free zone as a small but important ambition of saving our seas,” said Mr Chapman.

Mr McNally said: “Unfortunately there is currently no quick way of getting nurdles out of our seas and oceans, but we can ensure we are not adding to the problem.

“We are asking people not to use as much single-use plastics and when you do, to try and think of other uses for that plastic.

“Another way you can help is to organise a nurdle hunt, where you go out to your local beach with a jar and collect these pellets and dispose of them in a plastic recycling bin.”

“It is our aim to make the Firth of Forth a nurdle-free zone as a small but important ambition of saving our seas. DOUGLAS CHAPMAN MP

Nurdles, or microbeads, in their thousands washed up and polluting the beach-head at Ferrycraigs House, near the Queensferry Crossing, in the Firth of Forth.