Damaged containers cleaned of nurdles, port says
Port of TyneTwo damaged containers which spilled a huge amount of plastic nurdles into the ocean have been cleaned of the pellets, a port authority has said.
Tonnes of the tiny beads have washed up on the North East coast, after the ship Wind Orca collided with berthed container ship BG Orange at the Port of Tyne on 19 July.
Over the weekend a specialist team arrived at the port and cleared nurdles from the containers using an industrial vacuum.
A spokesperson said teams were also working to clear the wreckage on land, including a collapsed crane, and a floating barrier known as a boom was also erected at Jarrow Bridge on the River Don to collect nurdles.
The pellets have been washing up along the coast, from Littlehaven in South Shields, across the mouth of the Tyne to North Tyneside, up to Northumberland and down to Seaburn, Sunderland.
Environmental charity Fidra puts the number of nurdles at about one billion.
Following the spill, the Environment Agency (EA) said the risk to public health was low but they could be harmful to wildlife.
South Tyneside CouncilTynemouth councillor Tom Bailey, who has been involved in clean-up efforts, asked people going to beaches not to tread on the nurdles.
"The majority of the public are completely unaware that if they walk into that and tread it into the sand they are sending particles down that we may not be able to get out for months," he said.
"'Do not tread on the nurdles' needs to become a community motto right now."
A spokesperson for the EA previously said it was "deeply concerned by the significant amounts of plastic nurdles continuing to wash up on" beaches.
They said while local councils were responsible for determining how the clean-ups were carried out, the person or company responsible for the pollution would be the one to pay for it.
"We will carry out a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident to establish the facts and consider whether any regulatory action is appropriate," they said.
Last week, the Port of Tyne erected a floating barrier around the BG Orange last week to help prevent further spills.
