Hundreds of thousands of “nurdles” have washed up on Waiheke’s Oneroa Beach. Video / Dean Purcell, Alyse Wright
Hundreds of thousands of plastic beads have washed up on beaches in the Hauraki Gulf.
Only half of the plastics businesses using nurdles have signed up to voluntary spill prevention initiatives.
Plastics NZ CEO Rachel Barker and others are calling for legislation to force companies to prevent spills.
Hundreds of thousands of tiny plastic beads used to manufacture products like water tanks and milk bottles have washed up on northern beaches in parts of the Hauraki Gulf with the plastics industry saying it’s possible the company responsible for the spill doesn’t care about the pollution they’ve caused.
TheHerald filmed at Oneroa Beach on Waiheke Island where lentil-sized plastic pellets or nurdles were clustered in their thousands among seaweed on the high tide mark. Thousands of the particles have also washed up on the northern side of Motuihe Island.
There are 435 plastics businesses in New Zealand, many of which import plastic pellets and melt them down to create products like stormwater pipes, road cones and containers.
However, only half of the businesses using nurdles have signed up to voluntary initiatives to prevent them spilling into drains and washing out to sea.
Plastics New Zealand CEO Rachel Barker called the Herald’s video “heartbreaking” and was disappointed many in her industry haven’t bothered to use mitigation devices like litter traps in drains to stop plastic beads ending up on beaches.
Rachel Barker is CEO of Plastics New Zealand. Photo / Addictive Media
“Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, there will be an element of that. I think it sucks, quite frankly. From where we sit, there is no excuse. The mitigation measures are clear and easy to implement.”
Hundreds of thousands of tiny plastic beads or nurdles that washed up on Waiheke Island's Oneroa Beach likely came from a spillage at a plastics manufacturer in Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell
Waiheke Island local Greg Yeoman told the Herald he was “horrified” to see the plastic beads littering Oneroa Beach when he went for a walk on Friday.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” he told the Herald.
Yeoman said seeing the scale of the pollution was deeply frustrating considering he co-founded a business called Enviropod 30 years ago with the express intention of diverting waste from stormwater drains using nets which trap litter.
Yeoman has spent more time overseas recently in places like Canada where strict laws require innovative products like his – a contrast to New Zealand where fines for such pollution are rarely handed out.
Greg Yeoman is the co-founder of Enviropod International Limited & Stormwater360. Photo / Dean Purcell
Auckland Council has not fined any business or individual for plastic pollution in the past two years and it appears there’s unlikely to be any form of investigation or formal clean-up after the most recent spill that’s sullied beaches in the Hauraki Gulf.
Millions of these things are coming off industrial sites
The council’s compliance manager Adrian Wilson told the Herald identifying offending operators is challenging.
“Nurdles are very difficult to clean up and to trace the pathway or source of the contaminant,” he said.
Wilson cast doubt on whether litter traps in drains would help saying microplastics like nurdles are generally under 5mm in size.
“It would be difficult for litter traps and stormwater devices to capture nurdles and then be effectively maintained without large cost or introduction of new regulations.”
Greg Yeoman says his "Litta Trap" nets can prevent anything from cigarette butts to tiny plastic particles from entering drains. Photo / Dean Purcell
Yeoman was critical of the council’s stance on the issue telling the Herald his company has successfully used 1mm “nurdle liners” in drains for “several years”, including at local plastic companies, and overseas where he’s worked with the Chemical Industry Association of Canada and the Plastics Association of America.
Barker said one of her members who started using drain filters at their site discovered in the first week of use more than 30kg of plastic pellets was collected.
‘Small’ fines for polluters
Different coloured nurdles found on Waiheke Island's Oneroa Beach. Photo / Dean Purcell
Tiny plastic beads littering beaches around New Zealand is not a new problem, with a 2023 study saying Auckland’s beaches were 50 times worse than other areas when it came to microplastic pollution.
Plastic pollution is not solely the fault of the plastics industry.
However, Barker believes the regime for cracking down on offending companies is too weak and part of the problem is the paltry nature of council fines.
“[The fines are] probably not high enough to actually disincentivise on a general basis. The last fine I heard of was about $700 per drain, which is pretty small,” she said.
While having in-house voluntary rules to prevent spillage of nurdles by big business may sound like a public relations move, Barker is adamant “this is making a difference”.
Companies that sign up to the initiative, called “Operation Clean Sweep”, must not only implement measures to prevent nurdle spillage but agree to independent audits every three years.
The programme is intended for all parts of the product chain, including trucking companies that deliver nurdles to various locations.
Barker is now calling for legislation to force companies to introduce systems to prevent plastic waste escaping into the environment.
Nationwide regulation gives it more teeth
“It’s something that we would actually support as regulation in this area because it would then actually force the companies to get on board,” she said.
Barker, a former engineer at Fisher and Paykel, said national legislation would create more consistency in terms of penalties and firm action from local authorities.
“Nationwide regulation just gives it more teeth, in terms of actually getting companies to do something. The threat is bigger,” she said.
Yeoman agreed saying the mess at Oneroa Beach was evidence the current system was not working.
‘Poisoning the food chain’
Helen Adams-Blackburn works for the coastal clean-up charity Sustainable Coastlines and was with volunteers at Motuihe Island when thousands of nurdles were found washed up on the shoreline.
Helen Adams-Blackburn from coastal clean-up charity Sustainable Coastlines told the Herald the concentration of resin pellets found on Motuihe Island was “disturbing”.
She was with a group of volunteers last week when they made the discovery.
“It’s sad enough that you can find them on any beach across Tāmaki Makaurau if you look hard enough, but the situation on Motuihe was extreme,” she said.
Plastic beads or nurdles found by volunteers during a clean-up on the northern side of Motuihe Island.
She said such spills are not only an eyesore but the chemicals in microplastics like nurdles – which are consumed by fish – are toxic.
She too was “extremely disappointed” so few plastic manufacturing companies were interested in taking action to prevent pollution and backed any moves – including national legislation – to ensure action is taken on the issue.
“It’s a huge issue that needs to be tackled from all angles – individuals taking responsibility for their plastic use and joining one of our clean-ups, companies choosing sustainable initiatives, or the government creating effective policy to address the issue – we want to see all of it,” she said.
Environment Minister Penny Simmonds told the Herald the loss of microplastics into the environment is a serious issue.
However, she did not address questions about whether she felt the current system for handling nurdles was fit for purpose, or if legislative tweaks were on the cards.
“Currently, the Government’s focus is on a product stewardship scheme for farm plastics, agrichemicals, and their containers,” she said.
Michael Morrah is a senior investigative reporter/team leader at the Herald. He won News Journalist of the Year at the 2025 Voyager Media Awards and has twice been named reporter of the year at the NZ Television Awards. He has been a broadcast journalist for 20 years and joined the Herald‘s video team in July 2024.
