Nurdles are small plastic pellets and the raw material that nearly all our plastic goods are made from and billions of them enter our seas and waterways every year.

There is a global hunger for plastic products and nurdles are transported across the world to meet the demand. From the moment these plastic pellets are created, they are often mishandled and spilt, either entering our seas directly from shipping containers, working their way indirectly into our water systems from being swept into drains at production plants, spilt on our roads during transit and blown far and wide. Plastic has devastating impacts on wildlife and ecosystems across the world.

Although small in size, nurdles pose a very big and serious threat to wildlife. They attract and absorb pollutants such as DDT and PCBs to very high levels and are consumed by species such as seabirds, fish and crustaceans. Often round and clear in colour, they can look like like food - fish eggs. Consuming plastics can lead to animals dying from starvation as their stomachs struggle to process the build-up. Plastics often remain lodged in their stomachs, causing species to feel incorrectly satiated. The build-up of toxic chemicals can also transfer up through food chains causing more harm as they transfer to the animals that eat them. As nurdles get smaller, the problem can often get bigger. The plastic doesn't disappear - it breaks down into smaller and smaller particles posing a threat for filter-feeding species.

Indirect impacts can also occur as nurdles wash ashore in their billions as they can change the characteristics of sand such as the surface temperature and permeability.

Worryingly, the scale of this problem is huge. In the UK alone, an estimated 53 billion nurdles pollute our seas each year. 

The global figure is more alarming still - an estimated 230,000 tonnes enter our ecosystems each year.

Unfortunately, we haven’t escaped the problem here in Suffolk. At our Trimley Marshes Reserve, nurdles pollute the surrounding sea and estuaries and get deposited due to a combination of prevailing winds and currents resulting in the foreshore of the reserve acting as a collection point at the high water mark. Here all manner of floating debris accumulates and nurdles are joined by, and almost lost, in amongst the floating polystyrene balls and seemingly endless crisp packets. Our South East Suffolk Sites Manager, Andrew Excell, points out that Trimley Marshes’ location sitting adjacent to Felixstowe Docks whose international trade in raw plastic nurdles is likely to account for some local supply.

Whilst it can be easy to feel overwhelmed by the plastic problem, there is hope and the stories emerging from community groups, companies and individuals taking action is heartening. Our Suffolk Wildlife Trust team at Trimley Marshes have been joined by BT, the AONB team, Ipswich and District Scouts, IDive and the Felixstowe dock employees on occasions and mother and son duo Carol Drake and Josh have recently been paying special attention to nurdles pouring hours of their own time into helping cleaning our Suffolk shores at Trimley Marshes. Data is collected and sent to The Marine Conservation Society to gain an overall picture of our National plastic problem.

Other methods to tackle the problem are also being introduced with the installation of “sea bins” at the docks and more recently at local marinas on the Orwell Estuary. These floating sea bins capture large plastic debris and nurdles too and are highly useful filtration systems, however, they are but a drop in the ocean and in order to make a real and significant impact, many more are needed.

Suffolk Wildlife Trust works tirelessly to maintain our reserves and the foreshore at Trimley Marshes and hopes that in encouraging businesses to take increased responsibility, by raising awareness of the local and wider plastic problem, and by welcoming beach cleans on our sites, that we might in the future see a reduction in the demand for plastic and therefore a reduction in the harm it causes to our precious wildlife, waterways and ecosystems.

Can you help The Wildlife Trusts to protect our seas? Sign here to call on the government for Highly Protected Marine Areas, awarding our seas the upmost protect possible. 

Check out our tips on how to reduce your plastic consumption here.

And if you're beach cleaning this weekend - check out the Marine Conservation Society's pages here.