Nurdle Hunting

15,000 nurdles and counting!

Carnegie Rotary is celebrating removing 15,000 nurdles from a Firth of Forth Beach.

Nurdles are tiny plastic pellets about a fifth of the size of a garden pea. They are the raw material for the manufacture of the plastic items we use every day. They’re made in petro-chemical plants, and transported in ships, trains and trucks to the factories which make plastic products.

Unfortunately, there are few regulations governing their packaging, and millions – possibly billions – have spilled into the sea and waterways from insecure packaging. They’ve been washing up on coastlines all over the world, and killing birds and fish, which mistake them for eggs and ingest them.

Then the action of sunlight, and that of waves, sand, stones and human and animal feet grinding them down, reduce them over time into microscopic particles destined to pollute the soil for ever, potentially entering the food chain. They can also spread bacteria and viruses that stick to them.

Responding to Rotary’s environmental focus, we’ve been visiting Limekilns beach to remove as many nurdles as possible. To date (August 2023) we estimate that we’ve removed 15,000 – and such is the scale of the problem that there’s no sign of an end of the ‘supply’!

The sea air and the proximity of an excellent café for ‘afters’ makes ‘nurdling’ a popular activity with members!

For further information see The Great Nurdle Hunt .