By: Blonde Two
If you already know what a nurdle is, put your hand up! Well done, you can go to the top of the Blonde class!
Blonde One and I had no idea about nurdles, particularly nurdles on beaches until we met up with Nikki Banfield from the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust, on one of our fabulous Walk Scilly walks. Nikki specialises in rubbish and is indeed very passionate about it. We learnt a lot from her about all of the ways that plastics (and other rubbish) find themselves onto Scilly’s beaches, and about the ways in which picking it up again can be fun.
I had better explain what nurdles are to those of you not in the know. Nurdles should not be confused with noodles (although you can forage for sea spaghetti on the Scilly beaches). Nurdles are tiny bits of plastic and are the form in which basic plastic is transported from place to place. Researchers are interested to find out how nurdles are travelling around our planet (I think they just like saying the word!) You can join in with the “Great Nurdle Hunt” via their website.
There are other exciting things to find on the Scilly (and other) beaches. For example, have you heard of the ‘Flotsam Ark‘ and the ‘Flotsam Army‘? These little guys are plastic animals and toy soldiers and they have their own Facebook pages where you can upload pictures of them and find out where their mates have got to.
One thing that has got us Blondes (because we are of a certain age) excited is the prospect of finding Smartie lids (you know, the plastic ones that you used to be able to pop out of the tube and shoot across the room). There are some very clever people out there who can age your Smartie lid by the colour and lettering. Smartie Lids On The Beach also have their own Facebook page.
You can find out more about the interesting plastic found on Scilly’s stunning beaches here. There is of course a serious message behind all of this, there is a huge problem with the amount of plastic in our oceans and on our beaches. We all need to use as little as we can. A tall order maybe, but for now how about a bit of beach tidying? It’s a great excuse to get outside and the ideas attached are a great incentive for young and old alike.
