Education, campaigns & raising awareness

Using audience appropriate tools to convey the problem and more importantly the solution is key.

Everyone uses plastic, but everyone is affected by plastic pollution in different ways.

How to engage with the public?

Nurdle hunts can be a great place to start but there are other ways for people to see the impact of pellet pollution and get involved. Photo exhibitions, social media posts and news articles all help people understand the issues and build support for further action. Explore our resources and media library for inspiration.

How to engage with policy makers?

If you have public traction for the issue you can urge policy makers to act. Social media campaigns, press releases and petitions may be useful tools alongside direct approaches such as inviting politicians to nurdle hunting events and sending them reports and briefings. Often the most important thing to remember with this audience is to explain practical solutions to the problem, with clearly defined actions. See the Resources for examples of briefings and reports.

The message

Messages can be tailored to your audience’s interest and your aims. Here are some example key messages of interest to many audiences:

The impacts nurdles have on wildlife. Nurdles are made with harmful chemicals and look a lot like fish eggs eaten by marine species. The plastic itself and the chemicals on and in the plastic can have a negative impact wildlife, particularly seabirds, fish and crustaceans.
The scale of the issue Nurdles are the second largest primary microplastic pollution issue we face globally. It is estimated that 230,000 tonnes of pellets are lost every year enough to go around the world 1.5 times

Nurdle pollution is preventable governments can legislate to require the plastics industry to introduce measures to stop nurdle loss. It can be as simple as training staff to handle pellets responsibly and putting filters in drains.

Raising awareness

Communities, individuals and organisations are involved in raising awareness of the issue and there is more than one way to reach more people. Organisations around the world are currently involved in:

Nurdle hunting
Storytelling to communicate the current impacts of pollution
Education and schools
Running social media campaigns
Working with the press and media

Resources:

These resources have been developed by organisations around the world to support education and raising awareness of nurdle pollution. They can be referenced with appropriate credits and unless stated are not created or endorsed by Fidra or the Great Nurdle Hunt

Flora and Fauna International – Stemming the tide – putting an end to plastic pellet pollution – 2022 Report only

Overview of nurdle pollution and solutions 2022

Campaigning to raise awareness of the pellet pollution problem

Standards are needed to assure the plastic pellets are managed in a safer way and should be the minimum requirements for best practice across the supply chain.

Fidra – Nurdle Map

This link takes you through to the Fidra global nurdle hunt map This map shows you all nurdle hunts that…

Organisations working to raise awareness

(Please note Fidra is not endorsing these organisations or their work we are simply helping you find people who may be working on nurdle pollution by listing them below)