Yonder

05/08/2026

An update on the river:

We have been told by IFCA - Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority that they have been given permission to enter the river and will start their volunteer clean up efforts tomorrow and continue over the weekend. After being told last week to stand down, this is a huge step in the right direction and it is so comforting to know that a local organisation who have desperately being trying to help out with trained volunteers and equipment ready to go (and share with others) have been given the go-ahead. At present they have been asked by the Port of Tyne to work with and take direction from Ambipar. Ambipar is the agency that the Port of Tyne contracted in to assist (to my knowledge) - this will increase the efforts on the river.

Our open letter and community pressure has brought us to this place with the Environment Agency and their volunteer crew and RIB are due to head in alongside IFCA early next week - they are currently awaiting risk assessment sign off from PoT.

In addition as a community we have reached out to the Royal Quays Marina safety boat and the Red Seals - we are waiting a response from these teams but hope that seeing IFCA and EA on the clean up project will help encourage more help.

We must stress that these agencies are volunteering their own time, their own hours outside of their own working hours and into the weekend as they, like us, love the North Sea, the Tyne and our coastline and our environment. A huge thank you to them. They have even made a contraption called the Nurdle Hurdle - that they have been waiting to test. These are the volunteers we were speaking of and we should be very proud. Disappointing beyond belief that it took this long and this amount of effort but proud.

Alongside these we have placed pressure today on the PoT to actually declare an environmental emergency on the river - as should have been done in the first place. We await a response.

05/08/2026

An update on the river:

We have been told by IFCA - Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority that they have been given permission to enter the river and will start their volunteer clean up efforts tomorrow and continue over the weekend. After being told last week to stand down, this is a huge step in the right direction and it is so comforting to know that a local organisation who have desperately being trying to help out with trained volunteers and equipment ready to go (and share with others) have been given the go-ahead. At present they have been asked by the Port of Tyne to work with and be tasked by Ambipar. Ambipar is the agency that the Port of Tyne contracted in to assist (to my knowledge) - this will increase the efforts on the river.

Our open letter and community pressure has brought us to this place with the Environment Agency and their volunteer crew and RIB are due to head in alongside IFCA early next week - they are currently awaiting risk assessment sign off from PoT.

In addition as a community we have reached out to the Royal Quays Marina safety boat and the Red Seals - we are waiting a response from these teams but hope that seeing IFCA and EA on the clean up project will help encourage more help.

We must stress that these agencies are volunteering their own time, their own hours outside of their own working hours and into the weekend as they, like us, love the North Sea, the Tyne and our coastline and our environment. A huge thank you to them. They have even made a contraption called the Nurdle Hurdle - that they have been waiting to test. These are the volunteers we were speaking of and we should be very proud. Disappointing beyond belief that it took this long and this amount of effort but proud.

Alongside these we have placed pressure today on the PoT to actually declare an environmental emergency on the river - as should have been done in the first place. We await a response.

✌️

04/08/2026

Port of Tyne Open Letter update:

So proud of these lot yesterday. What a journey it’s been and will continue to be. Yesterday the community managed to sit at the table with Chief Executive Matt Beeton. Members from our force of volunteers both North and South of the Tyne were able to speak on behalf of us, express our serious concerns about the clean up efforts and put the case forward for allowing in help on the river.

The Port of Tyne Chief Executive Matt Beeton today (Monday) welcomed community volunteers and environmental campaign representatives to discuss the ongoing response to the recent nurdle spill on the River Tyne.

Having listened to the concerns and requests from the communities north and south of the River, the Port is putting together a plan of action which will allow volunteers to help on the river in a safe and controlled manner.

“Now that the salvage operation has passed a critical stage, we are putting plans in place to invite the community to help in a safe and managed way. The solution will be in conversation with volunteers who will play a major role in deciding what we do and how we do it, as well as taking part in the continued cleanup.”

WE still have serious concerns over the delays and appropriate treatment of this incident as an environmental disaster. We still do not believe that it is being treated as such.

There is a long way to go and we need to find out if this is just words or actions.

For now we need the local community to look to their networks on the river and the Royals Quays, their contacts with ribs that can go in and assist with this clean up.

02/08/2026

31/07/2026

Call to Action - Port of Tyne Step Up!

As a community we are exhausted - we have been dealing with this alone now for the past two weeks. We can assure you that there are not hoards of contractors out in force with machinery cleaning this up. It’s just us. South of the river we have the incredible doing their very best and as amazing as they are, this is huge.

We have heard reports of specialist, locally based and fully funded teams wanting to access the river and help clear the nurdles estimated 1.5 billion (plastic pellets) being stood down by contractors last weekend.

This is a travesty and the Port of Tyne need to let those organisations and specialist teams in.

Open letter for organisations, local business, national businesses and NGOs to sign - addressed to Port of Tyne demanding urgent action. See link in bio.

31/07/2026

⚡️We need you to now help us 🙏 ⚡️

The community coming together, defying the authorities request to stand down has got us this far. We have been on our hands and knees every day since this began collecting plastic nurdles washed up on our beaches from one of the worse, if not the worst plastic spills in Europe. It took the Port of Tyne 4 to act.

As a community we have done our best, we’ve thrown the kitchen sink at this and we’ve done it alone. We now need the help of the wider community, let’s put the pressure on those in authority to do much much more.

This is our river but these seas connect us all 💪

Send this far and wide - we are asking local business, national businesses, organisations, NGOs, CEOs to sign the Open Letter to the Port of Tyne asking for serious action to be taken immediately. See open letter above.

Send this to every press outlet you know - this story, despite being cited as Europe’s worst ever plastic spill has still not made it to the national news 🤯

ORGANISATIONS BUSINESSES SIGN LINK IN BIO ⬆️

We are 2242 members strong but we are not enough alone to deal with the 1.5 billion pieces of plastic floating in our river and landing on our beaches.

28/07/2026

An update on where we are at with the community led clean up and what is still needed. A bit of an explanation as to why this mobilisation is essential right now and why we couldn’t wait for the council to get their money/compensation to actually act.

This action is essential right now due to the high tides that we see this week. We are desperate for volunteers to join us at beaches as north as Newbiggin and as far south as Sunderland and beyond. We have a website explaining what is needed and where and when to be. Please don’t wait for someone to tell you though when you come and help. I’ve put a link below about the main messages being shared on the various groups. This is an incredible display of people power, beaches up and down the country coming out to organise and get this done. Mass mobilisation is needed.

I cannot stress enough. We do not have a large scale response from the officials. We do not have equipment on any beach other than the fish quay on a morning. are LEGENDS but they are only on one beach south of the river, they are not able to be North of the river where we are.

Your North Sea needs you 💪

27/07/2026

Scenes this morning. People power is the only way to deal with this. 💪

This coming week July 27th until Saturday will be key as the tides will be incrementally getting higher leaving lines of nurdles to collect. We are urging people to get down to their local beach - (actions also taking place in South Shields)

IMPORTANTLY this is grassroots and self led as we are getting no help from council or organisations based on EA policy not to handle. This is about taking initiative, acting independently but part of a wider collective.

Head down to your local beach anytime after high tide to collect the nurdles as they reach that high tide mark. An awesome member of the community has created a website with important and key information with the FAQs for everyone to access, do this correctly and safely.

IN BIO

✅ WhatsApp group link which has the various beach group collectives.

✅ Website link with FAQs from the community

Please share 💪

27/07/2026

Scenes this morning. People power is the only way to deal with this. 💪

This coming week July 27th until Saturday will be key as the tides will be incrementally getting higher leaving lines of nurdles to collect. We are urging people to get down to their local beach - (actions also taking place in South Shields)

IMPORTANTLY this is grassroots and self led as we are getting no help from council or organisations based on EA policy not to handle. This is about taking initiative, acting independently but part of a wider collective.

Head down to your local beach anytime after high tide to collect the nurdles as they reach that high tide mark. An awesome member of the community has created a website with important and key information with the FAQs for everyone to access, do this correctly and safely. There is also the WhatsApp group which has the various beach group collectives. I have placed both in my bio. Please share as numbers are needed.

26/07/2026

ACTION-

An estimated 1.25 billion (25tonnes) plastic pellets (nurdles) spilled in the river Tyne a week ago and are now all over our beaches, river, in our seas. According to experts this is being classed as the biggest plastic pollution disaster in the history of Northern Europe.

Two actions to potentially take:

You can join a community WhatsApp group that has been running this past week to help with the nurdle clean up please see this link 👇

https://chat.whatsapp.com/KXTZ6zO69si0vNqN0nrc1f

There are individual beach groups set up and there has been an unofficial request for help specifically on Monday and Tuesday. No organisation is leading this as hands are all tied by Environment Agency advice.

Volunteers on the ground and myself strongly believe that Our North Tyneside have not grasped the emergency level of this catastrophe and the response has been insufficient and late. So whilst volunteers are needed (and you must join the group to know more about this please) we need to put the pressure on the council to absolutely do more. Money should not be an issue, the environment should.

✅ join a specific beach clean effort through community chat or just head down. Find out more via WhatsApp. Large mesh bags are effective with shovels or where appropriate still dustpan and brush, techniques developing daily. Leave next to council bins in bin bags.

✅ Write to your MP, Councillor and the Mayor - all three and tell them you want to see a large scale effort going out at the appropriate times based on the tides to collect the nurdles. We are absolutely not seeing this. People are needed specifically Monday and Tuesday for a large scale clean up and we expect to see the council responding with numbers and the appropriate gear and equipment.

Nb- the council tractor is still being used on the beach and this is burying the nurdles deeper causing significantly more harm than good. This must stop.

https://www.gov.uk/find-your-local-councillors

Residents of the Tynemouth (and North Shields) constituency write to -

MP Alan Campbell - [email protected]

Mayor Kim McGuinness

[email protected]

Always include your name and address at the top.