Denmark nurdles may be from Tyne spill, agency says

Jason Arunn Murugesu

North East and Cumbria

Nurdles found along the Danish coast are likely to originate from the spill in north-east England, according to the country’s environment agency.

Masses of plastic pellets were found along the western coast of Denmark in September.

The Danish Environment Protection Agency has now confirmed tests carried out on the microplastics suggest they originated from the River Tyne spill in August.

It said the nurdles had the same characteristics as the one billion which had been spilled in north-east England and their arrival in Denmark in late September and early October was consistent with “current patterns and circulation in the North Sea”.

Signe Simonsen, the head of startup Race for Oceans Technology, first spotted the nurdles on the island of Mandø in Denmark on 26 September.

“There were just so many milk white plastic pellets,” she said. “So many that I’ve never seen before in this area.”

Simonsen said the discovery of the nurdles had made her “really sad” considering the “pristine” nature of the Wadden Sea.

Simonsen then said she drove along the coast of several nearby islands which are roughly on the same latitude as Newcastle.

She said there were nurdles “all over” where the tide had washed up.

Simonsen said she had collected nurdles from 10 different spots along the Danish coast and Sylt in Germany.

Simonsen, whose firm aims to detect microplastic pollution from drone images, then passed on some of her samples to the Danish Environment Protection Agency.

The agency, which tested the pellets alongside Aarhus University, said another factor which suggested the Danish nurdles were the same as those spilled in the River Tyne was the fact there were no other recorded spills in the area that could explain their presence.

Nurdles from the spill have washed up along the coast of north-east England including Teesside and Durham.

As of September, about 28% of the nurdles are believed to have been recovered.

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