Thousands of people in the North East are continuing to give up their time to collect plastic pellets from the coastline after they spilled into the sea in what has been described as a "disaster".
The spill and its aftermath
The pellets, known as nurdles, spilled into the River Tyne when two vessels collided at the Port of Tyne in South Shields, South Tyneside, last month. The Wind Ocra ship collided with the berthed container ship BG Orange, and containers were ripped open. A dockside crane collapsed, and the operator was taken to hospital with serious injuries. He is now recovering at home.
Nurdles were spilled into the water within five seconds of the crash and have been washing up on beaches across the North East. The Port's CEO Matt Beeton says staff did not become aware of the contents of the damaged containers until the following day.
Volunteer efforts
While the pellets are not toxic, they can pose a hazard to wildlife and other animals if ingested. Nearly three weeks on from the collision, residents are desperately trying to remove them from beaches. On Thursday morning, people were using nets, buckets, and dustpan and brushes to collect the nurdles from the beach at the North Shields Fish Quay. Many are giving up their own time, outside of their jobs, to clean up.
A WhatsApp community group, which has a total limit of 2,000 members, was set up for volunteers who would like to help. However, there were so many people who wanted to join they were unable to fit in one group.
Olly Armstrong, who is helping to lead the volunteer response, said that there are at least 2,500 volunteers involved in the clean-up. The 46-year-old, from North Shields, said: "I have been involved with helping with the clean-up and coordinating the volunteers. We have a lot of incredible North East women leading on all of this. It's incredible, it's exhausting and I love that the community are coming together. This is a horrible situation but lots of people have been really joyful. The community does things with love and care. They get the task done and they will step up. I think what this shows is that people really care about each other. I think everyone is really up for helping other people if you show them the way. People are coming from quite far away, which shows the depth of it."
Individual stories
Patrick Bibby, from Howdon, works as a healthcare assistant at the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle. The 59-year-old is not part of a volunteering team but chose to spend his day off collecting the nurdles from the dry dock in North Shields. He used a net to collect the nurdles from the water on Thursday morning and put them into a large bucket. He handed the heavy bucket over to volunteers to be weighed and discovered they tipped the scales at 6kg.
Patrick has been litter picking for over a decade but turned his attention to the nurdles when he found out they had been spilled into the sea. He said: "One of my hobbies is wildlife photography so I'm aware of the environmental impact and the damage to wildlife. In my opinion, it's a national disaster."
Dave Shaw, from Meadow Well, has been a litter picker for six years. The 76-year-old spent four days last week collecting nurdles from the beach in North Shields. He said: "It's just a complete disaster. We clean most of the beach up and we came back the next day and it was just as bad again. It's not good for wildlife, whether it's dogs, fish or birds. The nurdles do them more harm than good. The quicker we can get them all picked up the better. I was out four days last week, I didn't get any litter picking done. The community response has been absolutely brilliant. All the volunteers have come together. If we can get more volunteers down here, even on the small beaches, that would help."
A volunteer, who did not wish to be named, said: "The community support has been incredible. The number of people we have met since we have been doing this is incredible, it's just sad that it's had to happen. I'm a regular water user, I paddle and I swim and we love our wildlife here. I live quite close to St Mary's Lighthouse where there are bird and seals. This is a serious problem for people running businesses in the area as well as for the wildlife. There are a lot of people who are wanting to get out and help."
Local support
North Shields Councillor Josephine Mudzingwa has been going down to the beach twice a day to take part in the clean-up and offer support. She says she heads down at 6am and then again at 7pm. She said: "It's a sad situation. People are very stressed. They are worried about animals and the birds."
Josephine visits the beach at 6am to tell people where the nets are, how to use them and help those who are new. She then returns at around 7pm to support those who are helping after they finish work. She said: "I'm really grateful, the volunteers are doing a great job. People are bringing dust pans and spoons and leaving them for the next person to use. It's amazing what people are doing."
Josephine, who is North Tyneside's first black councillor, has encouraged anyone who would like to help out to come along after the tide has gone out as they will be able to collect more of the nurdles.
