Nurdles on the Beach: SAMSA halts recovery operation

The South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA)  has formally concluded the recovery of plastic nurdles along the KwaZulu-Natal Coastline.

SAMSA had issued a directive for the collection of the plastic Nurdles in October 2017. The plastic nurdles fell into the ocean during a storm in Durban when several containers fell off a ship that was moored in the port at the time, discharging the tiny pieces of virgin plastic into the ocean.

The collection of the nurdles was monitored by a Joint Operations Committee consisting of the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) as the lead agency, Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), Transnet National Ports Authority (TPNA), KZN Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA), Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC)/Resolve Marine, The International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation (ITOPF) and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA).

SAMSA said in a statement that  it had carefully considered the decision to halt the recovery operation.

“In deciding on the stoppage of the collection SAMSA took into account the law of diminishing returns and decided that the amount of Nurdles collected during the last inspection between the 11 and 12 December 2020 do not provide sufficient justification to continue with the recovery operation. Approximately 70% of Nurdles are report to have been collected to date,” SAMSA said.

 “All affected areas where nurdles were collected will be inspected and monitored. SAMSA also reserves the right to instruct the responsible party  to conduct further clean up should there be a need following the monitoring.”

Nurdles are small plastic pellets which are about the size if a lentil. Many billions of the tiny pellets used by plastic manufacturers each year to make a wide range of plastic products for domestic and industrial use. However, many of these plastic pellets end up washing into the ocean and land up on beaches around the world.