Danish coastal pellets likely come from Tyne spill, environment agency says
Plastic found on Denmark’s western coast in September may extend the footprint of a billion-pellet spill in north-east England across the North Sea.
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Plastic found on Denmark’s western coast in September may extend the footprint of a billion-pellet spill in north-east England across the North Sea.
Denmark’s environment agency said on 23 October that plastic pellets found on its western coast likely came from the River Tyne spill in north-east England. The bodies leading the cleanup said in a 26 October BBC report that recovery was continuing but had increasingly shifted from large-scale cleanup to targeted recovery and monitoring.
About 18 tonnes of pellets—roughly one billion tiny balls—spilled into the Tyne on 19 July after a collision between ships at the Port of Tyne. Known as nurdles, the lentil-sized pellets are raw material for making nearly all everyday plastic goods. Pellets from the spill had already washed ashore along England’s north-east coast, including Teesside and Durham.
The Port of Tyne, the Environment Agency and the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority said they believed recovering all 18 tonnes was not achievable. The bodies said the number of pellets washing ashore had fallen significantly by the end of September and was continuing to fall.
As of September, about 28% of the spilled pellets were believed to have been recovered. Asked what recovery percentage would count as success, the bodies said they would use several measures, including shoreline surveys, to assess progress.
The Danish Environment Protection Agency tested the pellets alongside Aarhus University and said they had the same characteristics as those spilled in the Tyne. Their arrival in late September and early October, about 390 miles (630 km) away, fitted North Sea current patterns and circulation. The agency also said no other recorded spill in the area could explain their presence. It identified the Tyne as the likely origin, rather than a confirmed match.
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Signe Simonsen, head of startup Race for Oceans Technology, first spotted the pellets on Denmark’s Mandø island on 26 September and supplied samples to the agency. Her company aims to detect microplastic pollution using drone images.
The spill’s impact on wildlife remains unknown; identifying where the pellets came from does not establish ecological harm. The North East England Beached Bird Survey has collected several dead birds along the coast and plans to test them for pellets in November.
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