Nurdle

we had our crunch and brunch meet up today... an hour of core stability followed by the biggest breakfast you could ever wish for.

Whilst scoffing we got talking about each others projects, and at this point I found out about Nurdles. As two of my pals are starting an action group.

Nurdles are plastic pellets. They're melted down to produce almost any plastic product you can imagine. In their original state they seem quite innocent, but there is a big problem with spillages being flushed into the water system, under the assumption that they will be filtered out. However these make their way into the sea and then onto the shores. The plastic when exposed to the marine environment attracts petrochemicals and toxins like a magnet. So each of these become highly concentrated toxic pellets. Birds and other animals then eat these, mistaking them for food, and the toxins enter the whole food chain. Another danger are Micro Beads. The tiny things found in cosmetic scrubs and whitening toothpaste. Microbeads are very tiny Nurdles, which eventually get eaten by mussles, prawns, and other seafood, which bring the toxins into the human food chain.

So my friends are starting an awareness group. To monitor beaches... (these Nurdles were found on the beach where I live, in a random 50cm square section. It apparently took about about five minutes to pick these up, so you can imagine how many are found along the coast) and in the hope that public awareness encourages companies to look at how they handle these. Also to raise awareness of checking the ingredient list on your cosmetics...

I shall keep you posted