MP calls for ban on ‘biobeads’ at sewage works after devastating Camber Sands spillage | Pollution

The use of tiny, toxic plastic beads in sewage treatment plants should be banned nationwide, an MP and wildlife experts have said after a devastating spill in an internationally important nature reserve.

Hundreds of millions of ‘biobeads’ washed up on Camber Sands beach in East Sussex last month after a failure at a Southern Water sewage treatment plant caused a catastrophic spill. This has distressed and alarmed local people and conservationists, as not only are the pearls unsightly, but they pose a deadly threat to wildlife.

Scientists from Kings’ College London tested the beads and found they contained heavy metals, including lead and arsenic.

Local Labor MP Helena Dollimore is launching a campaign with the Wildlife Trusts on Thursday to permanently ban the use of these beads. The government or regulatory body has no record of the number of aquatic plants using these beads, the condition of the containers holding them, or the risk posed to beaches near where they are kept.

Campaigners will gather at Rye Harbor Nature Reserve, an internationally important habitat for rare wading birds, to call for a ban on the beads.

Research by the Guardian has discovered at least 15 processing facilities using the beads, all located around the south and southwest coast of England. These plants are older, built mostly in the 1990s and early 2000s. They use billions of floating plastic beads to create layers of biofilm, water-purifying bacteria, which are separated from the environment by a sieve. Recent technological advances now make it possible to purify water using electrical currents and fixed ceramic or concrete surfaces. There are similar but more expensive products, made of glass, which are less harmful to the environment.

Dollimore, MP for Hastings and Rye, said: “A month ago I didn’t know these plastic beads were being used in local sewage treatment plants until 320m of water washed up on our beaches and nature reserve, causing an environmental disaster. The use of beads is obsolete technology and better modern methods exist. So why are water companies still using them in coastal plants – the very place where they could cause the most damage? We ask them to put the marbles in the trash.”

The beads contain a large number of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which have been linked to cancer. They often contain toxins, including lead, antimony and bromine. Once in the sea, they attract algae, making it smell like food to sea creatures, who then ingest it and can be poisoned.

The local Wildlife Trust is struggling to cope with the spill. Conservationists have worked tirelessly to remove the pearls, which has proven difficult because they are embedded in fragile habitats including salt marshes and cobbles. The trust said it would order post mortems of the dead birds found, to see if the beads were a cause of death. The nature reserve is popular with birds such as whistling ducks due to the abundance of seeds found in the mudflats; but these are the same size as biobeads, so it is likely that they will be ingested.

Henri Brocklebank, director of conservation at Sussex Wildlife Trust, said: “Rye Harbor Nature Reserve is internationally important for its birds, with species traveling thousands of miles to feed and breed here. The biobeads are small and buoyant, not unlike many of the foods these birds seek out. The impact of bioplastics accumulated in the digestive system is well documented, but the effects of any contaminants that might be released into the acidic intestinal system of these birds are much less understood. environmental biobeads are essential, but I fear that our grandchildren will still find them in the years to come.

“There is only one way to ensure we never have another biobead spill. That is to stop our wastewater treatment plants from using them. This is old and redundant technology and we need to end their use quickly.”

Water Minister Emma Hardy has written to water companies to find out the extent of their use of the beads. The Environment Agency continues to investigate Southern Water following the spill at Camber Sands.

Southern Water apologized for the spill and said it was unable to comment on third-party testing.

Defra has been contacted for comment.