By William Coleman
How many times have you driven down a peaceful country road or stepped onto a beautiful beach to find empty plastic bottles, food packaging crisp packets and all other manner of plastic waste? It does seem to be a lot more common and is causing some serious issues with the environment. An environmentally conscious park has a new secret weapon to compact this ever growing issue.
Mother Ivey’s Bay Holiday Park in Padstow are taking the war on plastic pollution to another level and are fighting to keep local beaches clean by investing in special equipment which can rid the sand of micro-plastics.
Called a trommel, the machine sieves the sand to separate out “nurdles”, the small plastic pellets produced in their billions each year during the manufacture of plastic products.
The anti-pollution device, which is operated manually, has been designed and manufactured by Nurdle, a not-for-profit business based in North Devon.
Staff at Mother Ivey’s Bay carry out regular beach clean-ups throughout the year, and team leader Anna Wilsher says the trommel will make a huge difference:
“Last year we noticed nurdles during our beach cleans, and although it was possible to pick these up by hand, we have been on the look-out for a way that makes the task easier,” she said.
“It’s a fantastic piece of equipment and easy to use. I am looking forward to letting families staying at our holiday park to have a go as it’s also actually rather fun!
“Removing nurdles from the beach so they do not return to the ocean is vital to help reduce marine pollution,” added Anna who is a qualified marine biologist.
Once the nurdles have been separated, they will be upcycled and used by local artist Veronika Niewiadomska to create special pieces of creative work:
“I’m really excited about this project, and really looking forward to working with the recovered plastic to create collages and sculptures,” said Veronika, a graduate from Winchester School of Art.
Mother Ivey’s provides caravan holiday homes, both privately owned and for hire, plus touring pitches.
This is a great big step in the right direction for our coastline. It is a horrifying fact that our oceans littered with so much plastic that some clumps or garbage are the side of small islands. The wildlife are eating them and dying and our beached are becoming littered with floating trash. So always take a spare bag with you just in case someone else doesn’t bother.
