The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Nurdles posing a risk to human health on beaches
More than 1,000 people are set to take part in a worldwide search for tiny plastic pellets this weekend in the first Great Global Nurdle Hunt.
Organisers from Scottish environmental charity Fidra are teaming up with North Queensferry Community Council and Fife Coast and Countryside Trust to run a local survey at Ferrycraigs beach today.
The North Queensferry Nurdle Hunt will take place from noon to 4pm. The team hope volunteers will join them in their bid to remove as many as possible while adding data to a global map.
Similar events will be taking place in other countries as campaigners battle to bring the problem of plastic pellet (or nurdle) pollution to the attention of governments worldwide.
Nurdles are small pellets which are melted down to make almost all of our plastic products. They are easily spilled and can be lost to the environment if not handled carefully.
Once in the environment they can absorb toxins present in the water. They are also easily mistaken for food by many animals, meaning they and their toxins can enter the food chain.
More than 600 volunteers from across the UK found pellets littering 73% of the beaches they searched in 2017. Last year volunteers removed 450,000 plastic pellets from Ferrycraigs beach.
Experts have revealed some of Scotland’s finest beaches are being polluted by sewage bacteria sticking to the surface of the tiny plastic beads, eluding bathing water quality tests and putting human health at risk.
In a new study biologists at Stirling University collected nurdles from five EU-designated bathing beaches in East Lothian – Longniddry, Gullane, Yellow Craigs, Broad Sands, and Milsey Bay (North Berwick), all downstream in the Forth Estuary from Edinburgh and the Grangemouth industrial zone.
They found 45% were polluted with the bug Ecoli and up to 95% with the bacteria Vibrio.spp