As the nurdle spill reaches to Druridge Bay in the north and North Yorkshire to the south, contract clean-up workers are being laid off. Meanwhile volunteers are feeling exploited.
The pollution caused by the nurdle spill at Port of Tyne last month now stretches more than 45 miles of coastline. Nurdle pellets have been confirmed as far south as Marske-by-the-Sea North Yorkshire.
Volunteers reported fewer boats on the Tyne and fewer official crews on the beaches on 21 August, signifying that clean-up workers under contract from Briggs were beginning to be laid off from Friday 21 August.
According to campaigners, no agency has yet provided any official figures of how much of the 17-tonne nurdle spill has been cleaned up and are consequently demanding a single confirmed figure for how much of the spill has actually been recovered.
Volunteers have been busy designing their own low-cost tools and techniques to fill the gap left behind by laid-off contract workers and it is said that more than 6,500 hours of volunteer time have now been logged.
Community volunteers also say that one month after the collision between the BG Orange and the Wind Orca spilled plastic pellets into the River Tyne the clean-up is “losing momentum” as contract workers are being laid off This is despite the fact that the pollution now spreads as far south as Marske-by-the-Sea in North Yorkshire and as far north as Druridge Bay in Northumberland, meaning that the confirmed spill site is now around 45 miles of coastline.
Volunteers are unhappy with the timing of the contract workers being laid off. Hundreds of thousands of nurdles are still thought to be in the Tyne and along the coast, often buried under the sand, some within metres of where the spill took place. Meanwhile fewer clean-up crews and boats are visible on the beaches and the water.
Emily O’Regan, a clean-up volunteer who has been cleaning up nurdles with Northumberland Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (NIFCA) for the past two weeks commented “The highest concentrations of nurdles are being found in the more sheltered corners of the Tyne, where tidal currents and wind have less influence. These hotspots are particularly evident in former dry docks, although quantities of nurdles still remain visible just metres from the original spill site.”
Nurdles are easy to see at low tide, scattered beneath groynes, across dock walls, and inside dock infrastructure. From there they are released back into the river as the tide rises. This means volunteers on boats have only a limited window to recover them before they’re redistributed up and down the North East coast.
O’ Regan commented further: “Cleanup is labour-intensive, as the nurdles are mixed with other debris and must be separated as far as possible, and there’s some pretty nasty stuff in the river,”
However, helping with the nurdle cleanup is diverting resources away from NIFCA’s statutory responsibilities, including the monitoring and compliance of shellfish and fish catches across the area.
Consequently, O’ Regan goes on to say: “Maintaining our regular work is equally important for protecting the marine ecosystem. At this stage, we are uncertain how much longer we can sustain the cleanup effort at its current pace.”
A second meeting with the Port of Tyne, has been planned by volunteers where they hope to learn more about the recovery operation in the Tyne.
One volunteer from South Tyneside is Colin Porter who handed over the first letter to Chief Executive Matt Beeton. Porter commented: “In our first meeting with the Port of Tyne, we felt listened to and were glad to see efforts made to get more clean-up boats out on the Tyne. However, we still feel that the Port could do more, including collaborating with volunteers. We look forward to a follow-up meeting this week.”
Now, however the volunteers are commenting that they feel increasingly exploited
Another of the volunteers, Dr Helen Charlton MCIPD, FMCI, who has spent weeks on the beaches, commented: “The North East isn’t afraid of rolling its sleeves up and getting a job done, and our generosity as a community is infamous. That’s evident in the incredible contribution volunteers have made to the clean up efforts, in time but also physical resources repurposed to the efforts – the countless kitchen utensils, garden tools and more”.
“Sadly, the recent scaling back of the commercial activity has increased volunteers’ concerns that resourcing may be reducing in part because our community continues to provide thousands of hours of unpaid labour, a figure significantly underestimated by the community’s efforts to make this visible through recording these hours.
“It’s reasonable to fear this ongoing discretionary support could create a situation in which voluntary efforts inadvertently undermine justification for official resources, and risks the community feeling increasingly exploited.”
Meanwhile, Sally McGee, of Yonder surf school has spoken about the impact on local businesses: “As a local business, that encourages a deep relationship with the North Sea for surf and wellbeing, this catastrophic spill of plastic is just one more nail in the coffin for our already very nature-depleted coastline and another hill for coastal businesses to climb. The toll that the clean up has had on our clients and community, who have felt the weight of responsibility, to clean up this mess cannot be underestimated.”
Community develops its own clean-up technology
Volunteer efforts are evolving as official responses seem to being scaled back. Local volunteers have designed new safety protocols, now being tested along the coastline, along with miniature nurdle collection kits, bucket sequences that tackle seaweed and debris.
Lou Shackleton, who specialises in design frameworks commented: “I’ve been struck by just how much innovation is coming from the community,”
“People have been finding their own low-cost, ingenious ways of adapting to conditions across more than 30 miles of diverse coastline – from wet and dry sand and coal, to shells, rocks and various types of seaweed,” she explains. “I want to streamline and improve existing techniques while also finding ways to reduce some of the more physically demanding work for volunteers, such as spending long periods bent over or kneeling.”
Meanwhile the effort of the volunteers has been commended by the Environment Agency who said: “The commitment shown by local communities has played a vital role in supporting recovery efforts and protecting the coastline,” says a spokesperson. The agency has opened a direct channel of communication with representatives of the volunteer community, who hope this marks a step towards closer collaboration”.
Helen Charlton
I caught up with Helen Charlton to ask her for her thoughts on what has been happening – and what should happen next.
What has gone wrong with the clean-up and what has gone right?
I don’t think we are in position to say what has gone wrong or right as the situation is not over yet and trying to retrospectively assign success when we know volumes of plastic where they shouldn’t be is not something we should do.
What should happen next?
I think I would continue to ask for something I have felt we have needed from the beginning; a multi authority, multi-agency working group whose actions are very visible to the community
What lessons should be learnt for the future?
There is learning to be done. For the community, it is the incredible power of people coming together. None of us when we went to the baches with our dustpans and brushes expected to be met by hundreds of others doing the same. I don’t want our community to lose sight of the power we have. Sometimes, it just takes someone to take the first step and they will be surrounded by support.
There are also lessons to be learnt for the organisations involved and in time I am sure we will see the steps taken to minimise the risks of something like this happening again.
