Nurdle pollution in the North East
In July 2026, a major plastic pellet spill in the River Tyne released an estimated 24-25 tonnes of industrial plastic pellets, known as nurdles, into the environment. Since then, these tiny pellets have been found along coastlines across the North East, creating a significant pollution incident for our marine and coastal habitats.
What are nurdles?
Nurdles are small plastic resin pellets, typically measuring between 1 and 5 mm. They are raw material used to manufacture almost every plastic product, including bottles, packaging, toys and many household items.
Although they are not plastic waste, once released into the environment then can become a serious form of pollution.
What happened?
On 19 July 2026, an offshore vessel collided with a berthed container ship in the Port of Tyne, damaging a dockside crane and rupturing a container carrying nurdles. An estimated one billion plastic pellets escaped into the River Tyne and have since been carried by tides, waves and coastal currents.
Because nurdles are lightweight and buoyant, they can travel long distances, which is why they are being found on beaches and shorelines well beyond the River Tyne.
How does this impact wildlife?
Nurdle spills are considered serious environmental incidents because the pellets can persist in the environment for many years.
Marine wildlife may mistake nurdles for food; and can therefore affect seabirds, fish, crabs, shellfish and, indirectly, marine mammals, through the food chain. The pellets can also absorb other pollutants, including oil, which increases the risk to wildlife and habitats.
Potential impacts include:
- Digestive blockage and starvation in animals
- Reduced reproductive success
- Transfer of pollutants through the food web
- Breakdown into smaller microplastics over time.
Unlike oil, nurdles do not dissolve or evaporate. Experience from similar incidents around the world shows that nurdles can remain in coastal sediments for many years and continue to wash up after storms.
How you can help
For up to date Information on local clean up efforts and how you can help by writing to your MP can be found here - Port of Tyne nurdle spill — Volunteer board.
Great Global Nurdle Hunt - September 4th to October 4th 2026
is a time of focus around the world where individuals, families, groups and schools hunt for nurdles on beaches and rivers. If you would like to use this campaign time to focus efforts on our local beaches please find more information - The Great Global Nurdle Hunt.
North East Nurdle Derby
Planet League helps sports fans across the country take impactful social and environmental action. They have created a football tournament style competition where fans from local clubs hunt for nurdles and score 'goals' for the actions they take, all kicking off on September 1st 2026. Find out more here North East Nurdle Derby.
Schools
Want to teach your pupils about nurdles? Find information and resources on the Fidra website here: https://www.nurdlehunt.org.uk/the-problem.html
NWT have created a class or assembly presentation suitable for Primary and Secondary pupils to introduce the topic, explore the local and global picture and a call to action:
Why not get your club, class or whole school involved in this year's Great Global Nurdle Hunt, or do your own hunt at a time to suit you. Lots of beaches have free to use equipment already there.
Nurdles could fit into your lesson plans. Here are a few ideas using information and data available here: https://nurdle-hub.vercel.app/
Maths - Analyse stats on clean up hours, volunteer sessions, organising hours and kilograms collected
Geography - Map where volunteers are cleaning, equipment locations and collection points
Science - Impacts on wildlife and habitats
Art - Protest creativity
Working together for our coast
The scale of this spill means recovery efforts are likely to continue for some time. By supporting clean ups, reporting sightings and calling for stronger prevention measures, we can help protect the North East’s internationally important marine and coastal wildlife together for the future.
Image © Leah Pattem
Campaign efforts
On Monday 3rd August campaigners, including NWT members of staff, handed over the signed Open Letter to the Port of Tyne (PoT) CEO Matt Beeton. The letter outlined concerns over the lack of action from the PoT to clean up the nurdles at the source of the incident and demanded this be changed by enabling trained boat people on the river to recover the nurdles there. The letter has been signed by 2,392 people including individuals, local groups, organisations, councillors, and MPs. BBC and ITV news were there to capture and broadcast the event, news of the disaster making national news.
Immediately following the public handover community leaders met with PoT CEO and staff to discuss the points made in the Open Letter and gain clarification on the events that followed the incident. The meeting was extremely productive, both sides agreeing to work together going forward with a new open communication approach.
On the 6th August we received news that the Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority has been given the go ahead to enter the river with trained volunteers, enabling the nurdles to be scooped up before they reach our beaches. This is a big win for the campaign.
