What is a nurdle?
Nurdles are small plastic pellets, the raw material that is melted down to make almost every plastic product. They are also called pre-production pellets or resin pellets.
The pellets spilled in the Tyne
- Size: about 4 mm across, roughly the size of a lentil or a small pea.
- Shape: round or slightly flattened discs and cylinders.
- Material: high-density polyethylene (HDPE), a hard, smooth plastic.
- Behaviour: they float in fresh water, so they collect along the water's edge, on strandlines and among vegetation.
- Colour: white. Pellets that have been in the river for a while may be discoloured, stained or coated in algae.
Where to look
Pellets gather where floating material is left behind by the falling tide or collects in quiet water:
- strandlines: the lines of seaweed, twigs and litter left at the high-water mark
- the edges of mudflats and saltmarsh
- reeds, grasses and tree roots at the river's edge
- slipways, pontoons, eddies and sheltered corners of harbours and inlets
Things that can look like nurdles
Polystyrene beads, fish eggs, small shells, grit, seeds and air-gun pellets can look similar. If you're not sure, send us a close-up photo with something for scale. We would rather see a false alarm than miss a real sighting.
Why they matter
Nurdles persist in the environment for a long time. Birds, fish and other animals can mistake them for food. Their surfaces can gather contaminants from the water and sediment around them. In the Tyne, that includes metals from the river's mining history.
Once trapped in mudflats, saltmarsh and vegetation, pellets are hard to clean up without damaging the habitats they are in. They can also be released again by later tides and floods. Understanding where they are stored, and when they move, is at the heart of this project.