Latest / The Letterbox Podcast / To the Nurdle | A Letter About Hope After the River Tyne Plastic Spill

Transcript

To the Nurdle | A Letter About Hope After the River Tyne Plastic Spill · The Letterbox Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome back to the Letterbox podcast, the place
• 0:04
  where people share the letters that really mean something to
• 0:07
  them. Now, I know that it's a little
• 0:11
  unusual to hear from me on a Friday, but this letter just
• 0:15
  came in to me. And although all of the letters
• 0:19
  are incredibly important to me, it felt like this one really
• 0:23
  needed to come out as soon as possible.
• 0:27
  This letter has come in from the incredible Sophie.
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  She's a PhD student in Newcastle.
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  She has an absolute passion for all things Ornithology and love
• 0:40
  of the outdoors. Yesterday she made a post on her
• 0:45
  Instagram page, which I will tag in the show notes that went
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  viral. And it's because she was talking
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  about a disaster that has happened in our British seas
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  that seemingly nobody was talking about.
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  She and thousands have volunteers have been spending
• 1:03
  hours upon hours on the shores of the North East coast of
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  England, sifting through the sand and water, trying to
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  collect as many nerdles as they can.
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  Now, if you're like me, I had never heard of a nerdle until I
• 1:18
  saw her video recently. Two vessels collided in the sea.
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  One of them was carrying a couple of cargo containers with
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  billions of these tiny lentil sized plastic beads essentially
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  that have spilled into the sea. You can understand why something
• 1:40
  like this can be particularly damaging to marine life.
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  So the fact that there was a delayed response in people
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  hearing about it or any action to start a clear up, it's really
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  devastating for the seas. But people like Sophie and the
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  organisations that have since joined to try and clean up the
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  spill is just incredible. So I wanted to share her letter
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  with you today because although this is a devastating
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  environmental disaster, what Sophie has taken away from it is
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  really positive because she said she has seen communities and
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  people come together to make a difference.
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  And in times like this, finding the positivity is what is going
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  to keep people motivated to keep going and cleaning up and being
• 2:28
  part of something really worthwhile.
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  So thank you so much to Sophie for raising awareness and
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  bringing this to people's attention and sending in this
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  letter today. And to all of the other people
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  who are there with their sieves sifting through sand to collect
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  these noodles, you are all amazing.
• 2:52
  Just before I read her letter to you, if you have not already,
• 2:56
  please do press that follow button.
• 2:58
  It is the best way that you can support the podcast.
• 3:02
  But for now, our letter from Sophie to the Nerdle.
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  I had no idea what a Nerdle was until about a week ago.
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  From the start, it sounds like something I could be described
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  as a nerd who loves Wordle. Alas, these nerdles, although
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  cute in name, are polluting our planet.
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  Some people are born with nerdles, some have nerdles
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  thrust upon them, and I have been thrusted 25 tonnes of
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  lentil sized plastic pellets. Over 1 billion circles of
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  pollution have just entered the River Tyne.
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  Was it on the national news? No.
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  Did they even try and clean them up?
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  Not for three days. Three days, 12 high tides and 12
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  low tides. These noodles were washed away
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  and dragged out to sea. Three days until someone stopped
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  to think, hey, maybe this isn't a good thing.
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  Maybe we should stop the spill, but by then the damage was done.
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  Up and down the North East of England Cosine.
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  The noodles are now spreading like a plague, buried in the
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  sand, bound to seaweed. This is a problem for
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  generations to come. And yet a glimmer of hope
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  emerges from the sand. The community emerges first.
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  A couple picking up the pellets before work, an elderly lady
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  with her sieve filtering through the sand.
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  More people join. Word begins to spread.
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  Families 3 generations, friends, colleagues, councils and
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  partners band together, searching the sand inch by inch.
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  After a couple of hours I check my bag.
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  There is maybe 1000 pellets, a few handfuls.
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  The ache in my back tells me I've done the work.
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  But why don't I see it? It's because you need to look at
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  the bigger picture. The earth is a closed system.
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  Nothing is created or destroyed, only transferred.
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  That means everything we do has a knock on effect.
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  While I may only have a few handfuls of noodles, the
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  thousands of other volunteers do too.
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  That means we don't just have thousands in hands, we have
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  millions. And soon the millions will hit
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  the figure we need a billion. So while this disaster has
• 6:07
  happened, while it will devastate our marine life, I
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  still have hope because when we band together, we can make a
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  real impact. Wow, Sophie, thank you so, so
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  much. That was such a wonderful letter
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  and so important. The message in Sophie's letter
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  about the importance of coming together as a community and
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  helping, although totally relevant to what is happening in
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  the northeast of England right now, we can take that and put
• 6:48
  that into absolutely any situation.
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  By working together we can make an impact.
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  So although I can't physically be, it was Sophie on the beach
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  collecting these noodles. I know I and everyone listening
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  all around the world will be so thankful for every single one of
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  those pallets that is removed from the ocean.
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  Please do head to Sophie's page. She is documenting what is
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  happening live on the beaches and it is fascinating to learn
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  about and watch. Outside of that, her photography
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  is beautiful. Actually use some of her
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  photography in one of my Instagram reels.
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  Let's go and check her out. Go and support her and anyone
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  else who is on the beach right now scooping up noodles.
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  You are all absolutely amazing and anyone who is out there
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  doing anything to help the environment, you are all
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  superstars. Thank you again to all of you
• 7:50
  for listening to the Letterbox podcast.
• 7:53
  If you would like to support the podcast, the very, very best
• 7:57
  thing that you can do is to press the follow button wherever
• 8:00
  it is you are listening from. If you could go and send a link
• 8:03
  to someone who you think might enjoy it too, that really would
• 8:06
  be in the absolute world to me, and I know it does to the people
• 8:12
  who've written the letters as well.
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  So until next time, look after yourself and let's celebrate the
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  people who are working tirelessly to protect our
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  planet. Then you all so much love.