Plastic pollution is scourge of English coastal region

MILLBROOK, United Kingdom: On an early spring afternoon, Tregantle Beach is bathed in a dazzling light reminiscent of a painting by British landscape artist JMW Turner as sea, sky and sun merge.

“It´s beautiful, right? But look at your feet,” says Rob Arnold, 65, an environmental activist and artist, crouching down to pick tiny plastic balls, or “nurdles”, sometimes nicknamed “mermaids´ tears”, out of the Cornwall sand.

The size of a lentil, the tiny bits of plastic are used by industry to manufacture plastic products. But when spilt at industrial facilities, they can be swept into drains and then out into the sea. Some 11.5 trillion nurdles end up in the ocean each year, according to UK charity Fauna & Flora International.

Once released into the natural environment, the nurdles circulate on ocean currents and often wash up on beaches and other shores. Due to their resemblance to fish eggs, birds and other sea life will eat the tiny pellets -- which also absorb toxic pollutants -- adversely affecting the entire food chain, Arnold says.

He is among about 10 people taking part in a clean-up on the beach in England´s southwestern Cornwall region, using a device he invented made from a plastic basin, a large grid and a set of tubes.

“It separates plastic waste from natural waste and sand thanks to a filtering and water floating system,” the former engineer says. He then uses the collected nurdles and other microplastics -- tiny bits of plastic that have broken off larger pieces -- in artworks.

Jed Louis, 58, wearing a khaki hoodie bearing the name of the local beach clean-up association, says several factors add to the beach´s vulnerability. “This beach is particularly polluted because of its geographical location, the sea currents that affect it and its very open shape,” he says.

“In autumn and winter we find the most microplastics because of the weather: storms, thunderstorms and winds, it brings them to the surface. “Unfortunately the plastic remains, it does not disappear,” he says.

Another volunteer Claire Wallerstein, 53, says “sometimes it´s a bit like doing archaeology. “If you dig in the sand, you´ll find different layers of plastic.” Some of the nurdles go to Arnold for his artistic creations while others are used to raise awareness in schools. The rest, which cannot be recycled, end up in the rubbish and are incinerated.