Officials claim that Biobeads cleanup "could take years", as plastic pollution concerns grow

KentOnline / KMTV

Plastic pollution concerns are growing along the southern coast of England after tonnes of plastic pellets called `'Biobeads``' were accidentally released into the sea by Southern Water.   These beads are now washing up on beaches in Kent and East Sussex, and officials say the cleanup could take years.   Our reporter Nailah Farah has been following the developments and joined me earlier to tell us more..

Transcript

00:00All right Naila, so can you start us off by telling us a little bit about how this actually happened?

00:04So it started as Southern Waters Treatment Facility in Eastbourne and the company says that what

00:09happened is damaged water filters basically allowed thousands if not 10 tons of these little

00:16bio beads to leak into the sea and like I said as you can see on the screen there are these tiny

00:21little plastic pellets that are used to clean waste water essentially but once they enter the

00:28open water they travel far and they travel very very fast I mean they've already reached the likes

00:33the likes of Cumber Sands, Cumber Sands excuse me and Ronnie Marsh and even St Mary's Bay which is

00:40just 50 kilometers away from the treatment plant itself. How serious is this? Are Kent coastlines safe?

00:47It's quite serious when you consider the fact that this is just another mark on Southern Waters

00:51reputation. I mean they have confirmed that it's very likely like highly likely that these beads

00:58have come from that specific treatment plan and what we have to remember is Southern Water is under a lot

01:03of criticism and scrutiny in Kent from its residents especially in regards to sewage pollution in the

01:10sea and also increasing water bills. I mean it was just earlier this year that Southern Water pled guilty

01:16to 13 charges for releasing untreated sewage into open water. I mean they've been fined millions if not

01:23tens of millions of pounds for releasing raw sewage into protected water and the public aren't happy

01:31Kent's residents aren't happy about this. They are boycotting the company by refusing to pay water bills

01:37until Southern Water essentially cleans up its act. In terms of if the coasts are safe environmental groups

01:43including one called strandlines and even some members of Southern Water are cleaning the debris.

01:51I think around 80% of the debris have been cleaned so far but local councils aren't happy. I mean

01:56rather district council has warned that it's likely more pellets will come through onto shores onto beaches

02:03in the coming weeks. And then you mentioned there that it's been brought to the attention of the council

02:07has it been discussed in parliament at all? It absolutely has. I mean Emma Hardy who is the minister for

02:13water and flooding in parliament. She has called the situation the issue an appalling pollution

02:20incident and she says that the immediate priority is to protect the wildlife and to prevent further

02:25impact on the community on these beaches. And it's not just Emma Hardy who's discussing this but

02:31Folkestone and Hive MP Tony Vaughan has posted a video on his social media on his Instagram basically

02:37holding Southern Water to account saying come and clean up your mess, stop harming our wildlife,

02:43stop harming our birds. So it is being discussed quite a lot, yes.

02:47All right, very interesting. Thank you so much Nila.

02:49Of course.

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