The Great Global Nurdle Hunt

Have you heard of a nurdle? Nurdles are tiny plastic pellets, about the size of a lentil. 

They are the building blocks used to make almost all our plastic products. But these tiny pieces of plastic leak out of the plastic supply chain in their billions, harming wildlife and flooding our beaches with plastic. 

We can stop nurdle pollution at source. Careful handling and simple best practice measures like preventing spills, cleaning up thoroughly and putting filters in drains can stop plastic reaching the environment. 

Fidra want to see certified measures required across the plastic supply chain, to make sure the whole industry plays their part. 

Everyone can help too by looking out for nurdles on beaches and waterways - take part in a nurdle hunt and join thousands of others across the world collecting data to strengthen our asks for worldwide solutions. Find out more at www.nurdlehunt.org.uk.

Evidence from the Marine Conservation Society's Great British Beach Clean was used to persuade industry to make voluntary changes to stop using plastic stemmed cotton buds and use rolled paper that wouldn’t directly harm wildlife.

Voluntary action from industry showed government a viable solution to replace a single-use plastic item and led to legislation in Scotland to ban plastic stemmed cotton buds.

In Scotland alone, around 40,000 disposable coffee cups are littered every day. With the UK takeaway industry growing we must ask: what happens to all the waste?

The vast majority is contaminated by food, grease and chemicals, so it cannot be recycled. Instead, it heads straight to landfill or incineration. 

Wherever possible, single-use packaging should be removed or replaced with reusable alternatives. Any single-use packaging needed should be recyclable or compostable with effective collection and processing infrastructure. ​

PFAS, the ‘Forever Chemicals’, are a group of industrial chemicals that are polluting our air, soil and water worldwide. They build up through food chains, causing long-term damage to wildlife, and are extremely persistent. 

It can take thousands of years for PFAS to breakdown in the environment, meaning the pollution we cause today will last for generations to come.​ Find out more at www.fidra.org.uk.