A major plastic spill on the North East coast has triggered sharp criticism of the government response, with volunteers and local leaders saying the cleanup has not moved fast enough. The dispute has put pressure on Prime Minister Andy Burnham, whom campaigners are urging to treat the incident as a national emergency.
Olly Armstrong, a campaigner from North Shields, said the spill should be handled as a national disaster and argued it would have been treated differently if it had happened farther south. He said thousands of volunteers have spent weeks clearing beaches after millions of plastic pellets washed into the River Tyne and the North Sea following a collision between two ships at the Port of Tyne. Armstrong said he is getting only a few hours of sleep each night while helping to coordinate the response.
The incident began on 19 July, when the Wind Orca, a 100-metre wind turbine installation vessel, collided with the berthed container ship BG Orange. The impact caused a gantry crane on the quayside to collapse onto the ship. Some of the containers aboard the BG Orange held nurdles, the small plastic pellets used as raw material for manufacturing most everyday plastic products. Once the containers were damaged, the pellets spilled into the water and later washed up on beaches.
Volunteers say the cleanup has been made more difficult by the scale of the contamination and the lack of resources. Armstrong said those with government power should move quickly to put legislation in place so a similar spill does not happen again. Labour councillor Josephine Mudzingwa, who represents North Shields, said teams on the ground need money, boats and more people to remove the nurdles. She said volunteers are still finding fresh pellets every day and described long hours spent on the beaches from early morning into the evening.
Other local voices have made the same case. Volunteer Dave Shaw, also from North Shields, said a spill of this kind on the River Thames would have drawn a faster response, and he called for the incident to be declared a national disaster. Kim McGuinness, the Labour mayor for the area, said the government has not done enough and accused the Environment Agency of being absent. She said she spoke directly with Environment Secretary Angela Eagle this week to ask for more cleanup support and was told the issue would be looked at.
