US plastic pollution experts from the 5 Gyers Institute have discovered hundreds of tiny pieces of plastic preproduction pellets called nurdles while carrying out a survey on Raglan’s Ngarunui beach. Nurdles are tiny bits of plastic that haven’t had the opportunity to be made into objects such as plastic bags or bottles.
The institutes’ co-founder, Anna Cummins, said there had been much more plastic than expected in some areas – including the Raglan beach.
“It looked like a very clean beach, some locals told me ‘don’t bother you won’t find anything’, it’s really when you get down on your hands and knees, move aside some of the natural debris that you see what we’re talking about.
“It was filled with small particles of plastic, with preproduction pellets that we call nurdles, so there was quite a bit in this one small area of Raglan that looked for all intents and purposes like quite a clean beach,” Ms Cummins said.
Staff from the 5 Gyers Institute – an international organisation working to reduce plastic pollution – are in New Zealand for the PURE Tour, a month-long event looking at plastic problems and solutions. The Raglan part of the tour was on the 5th and 6th of February with the beach visit on the 6th.
She said New Zealand was not as clean and green as it could be and needed better ways of managing plastic waste.
“Some of the research that we have been sharing here about plastics shows it’s getting into the food chain, into the bodies of fish and shellfish.”
Ms Cummins said there was also evidence of micro-plastics in consumer products – “everything from sea-salt to beer, to honey, to drinking water”.
Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage has launched a review of New Zealand’s waste manage act, the environmental harm caused by products and regulations to manage them, including bans or levies.
Details around the review’s scope and timeline are expected to be released in the next few months.