Wave of plastic pellets washed ashore in France an ‘irreversible’ problem, says activist

When Lionel Cheylus rolled up his sleeves to help collect tiny plastic pellets littering a beach in France, he knew it was an impossible task – but an important one.

“It’s a bit vain, to imagine that we can eliminate pollution [the beach] … because this is irreversible pollution,” said Cheylus, a spokesperson for Surfrider Foundation Europe, an ocean health advocacy group.

“So the idea here is to gather and have some figures on pollution, which helps us to make laws [change] after that,” he said As it happens hosted by Nil Koksal.

Millions of these pellets, about 1.5 millimeters in diameter or about the size of lentils, have washed ashore in France and Spain since last year. Known as nurdles, or mermaid tears, they are the raw material used to make a variety of plastic items.

Earlier this month, the mayors of the French seaside towns of Pornic and Les Sables d’Olonne, as well as the president of the Pays de la Loire region, filed a legal complaint about the plastic pollution covering the beaches.

Christophe Béchu, France’s ecological transition minister, described the situation as an “environmental nightmare,” according to AFP.

During a cleaning visit to a beach in Brittany, France, Cheylus and about 90 volunteers spent two hours collecting more than 60,000 individual pellets. Volunteers use sieves, tumblers, rakes and sometimes their hands to pick up plastic pollutants.

Light weight can also make it difficult for people to track.

“These pellets are very light, which means they can be easily returned to the sea,” explains Cheylus.

“So one day you will see a huge white wave [of pellets.] But the day after … pellets into the sea. And after that, you can find it on other shores.”

Whatever we can collect is just “a drop in the ocean,” Surfrider’s Jean-François Grandsart told the Guardian. He said the pellets break down into smaller microplastic-like particles, which can be ingested by fish and other marine life. Some will, eventually, end up in human food.

difficult to investigate

Most of the pellets found at Pornic appear to be the same size, color and shape, which suggests that they may have come from the same container – so they likely came from a single cargo pile. But Cheylus said he couldn’t be sure.

Since the pellets are not marked, there is almost no way to know where they came from or who owned them. Cheylus said the loss of one container hardly makes a dent in the company’s bottom line, so it is unlikely that someone will declare the item missing.

“It makes it very difficult to do the investigation,” he said.

One of the largest pellet spills occurred in 2021, when the cargo ship X-Press Pearl caught fire and sank off the coast of Sri Lanka.

More than 1,680 tons of pellets, many of them burned and contaminated with chemicals, covered hundreds of miles of coastline. A UN report called it the “biggest plastic spill” in history.

A nearly impossible task

Working for Surfrider for many years made Cheylus aware of the level of human-made pollution around the world, especially plastic and microplastic.

“It always drives me mad. Even when I go to the pool, and when I swim in the water, I say to myself: ‘All this water here, it’s probably full of microplastic,'” he noted.

Despite the daunting challenges – and in the case of mermaid tears, almost impossible to clean up – they still hope their advocacy work will bring greater attention to plastic pollution in our oceans, forcing governments and companies to take responsibility.

At the citizen level, they also hope that people will not use single-use plastic in their daily lives, instead using reusable containers, paper products and glass bottles and containers whenever possible.

“When we decided to use it differently without plastic, it really makes a difference. So I’ve got something – we citizens, in our hands. And we have to get inspired with all these new solutions without plastic, and try to do it. our part. I really believe that can make a difference.”