Gcilima heroes wage war on ‘nurdles’
These small plastic pellets can cause great damage to the environment.
WHEN nature photographer Taryn Burns read about Durban’s nurdle pollution problem she didn’t think it would affect the South Coast, so she was shocked when she discovered that South Coast beaches were also harbouring these pests.
Nurdles are small plastic pellets that can cause big environmental problems as Durban might be discovering. It is rumoured that a container of nurdles went overboard in Durban harbour during recent storms and that the city’s beaches have become infested with billions of these granules.
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“After going for an evening stroll a few days ago on Umkobi Beach in Southbroom, I started picking up the usual plastic shards of mankind’s unnecessary waste and just happened to come across what I had been reading about – those pesky little nurdles. Once I found one I started to see them everywhere, hiding under debris, cosying up next to rocks and even blatantly lying on the open stretches,” she said.
When she explored other beaches she found them everywhere, including on the Blue Flag Marina Beach. She and some friends set to work picking up the pellets and, while they were doing it, they came across a group of young boys from Gcilima who were spending the day on the beach.
“The next thing I knew all these kind children descended upon us and started frantically to help us pick up the nurdles. The saying, ‘many hands make light work’, was exactly what happened. The kindness and ‘uBuntu’ spirit displayed by these children gave me hope for the future of this world we live in. We never asked them to help. We never offered anything in return, yet these precious hands helped us clear something which is going to eventually affect us all,” Taryn said.
You can help Taryn and her happy band of Gcilima nurdle hunters, plus the environment and all our sea creatures, by picking up any nurdle – and any other plastic – you find on your local beach.
According to Taryn the white pellets are smaller than a pawpaw seed. They are an industrial raw material that is re-melted and molded to make plastic products.
“According to uShaka Sea World, on their own these nurdles are apparently not harmful but then they start to absorb pollutants such as organochloride pesticides, which are extremely harmful to both marine life and humans if consumed. They never disintegrate but just keep on breaking down into smaller pieces and eventually they enter the food chain, causing long term damage to our beaches and marine environment,” Taryn said.
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