Background
Following the July 19, 2026 container collision at the Port of Tyne, an estimated 17.9 tonnes (roughly 850 million in number) of plastic pre-production pellets (nurdles) were released into the River Tyne. Tracking and modelling by Newcastle University has shown they have spread out from the initial incident location. A large portion of the pellets were quickly carried out of the estuary by tides, river currents, wind, and waves.
Along Regional Coastlines: Pellets have washed up and spread across more than 80 miles of beaches, stretching along the English coast from Northumberland down through North Yorkshire. Additionally the Danish Environment Protection Agency confirmed that some pellets from the Tyne spill have drifted across the North Sea and reached the western coast of Denmark.
Clean-up Efforts
Local authorities, communities NGOs and commercial organisations have all done a remarkable job of trying to clean up the nurdles from coastal areas. That process will continue into the future, however, as the numbers decrease and distribution becomes more widespread clearing them up becomes more difficult. Essentially plastic nurdles from this accident will potentially continue to appear on coastlines for many years to come.
The Need for Long-term Monitoring
We believe there is a need to establish a coordinated, long-term coastal monitoring programme involving the very communities that have already demonstrated such an extraordinary commitment to protecting their coastline. Through our Big Microplastic Survey, developed in collaboration with the University of Portsmouth, we have spent the past eight years building and testing a citizen science methodology that enables volunteers to collect scientifically useful data on microplastic pollution.
We want to use this established programme to create a network of volunteer monitoring sites along the northeast coastline, collecting consistent data over time to help identify pollution hotspots, understand changes in distribution and inform future clean-up and management decisions. Citizen science cannot replace every aspect of professional environmental monitoring, but it can make sustained, large-scale data collection more accessible and affordable.
What’s Involved
We know that you all have busy lives, but you probably want to do something to make a difference. The Big Microplastic Survey is the perfect solution. By participating in this programme you will be making a contribution to our scientific understanding of the problem. The methodology has been designed to be cost and time effective and easily accessible making it as easy as possible for you to be involved. It takes about 30 minutes to do a survey and most of the items that you need to undertake a scientific microplastic survey you can find around the household, or are available at a minimal cost. So you can do a survey pretty much anywhere there is a shoreline, whether it is on the coast or in an estuary.
