Dude Uses Free Time to Sort Through Ocean Plastic

Author image for Eric Lund
Eric Lund
May 31, 2021 1:00 PM EDT

Rob Arnold has spent a dizzying amount of time sifting through washed up litter, and has some interesting and informative things to say about the plastic he's seen. Some of this stuff can even be traced back to specific incidents from decades ago, which is crazy to think about.

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  • 01
    Mulch - Rob's post OMG Washed litter from Tregantle beach on my drive, drying in the sun.
    via Rob Arnold
  • 02
    Text - Text - Rob Arnold Friday at 12:49· O Put the first 3 weeks of lockdown to good use, sorting microplastics at home. All the sieving now done. Here are a few of the things I discovered along the way. Over the next few weeks I'll be revealing more finds and observations from this plastic beach archaeology O 551 171 comments 1k shares
    via Rob Arnold
  • 03
    Text - Font - ll Virgin 17:18 EXTREME SORTING Micoplastics from Tregantle dried and sieved. Total dry weight aprox 250kg 3 sacks of fragments 10mm and above 4 sacks 5mm to 10mm fragments (width) 12 sacks of microplastics 5mm and under. Included in the above microplastcs, 5 million nurdles and bio-beads
    via Rob Arnold
  • 04
    Adaptation - Rob's post It's always good when you can date a found item. Here we have a give-away toy by Kelloggs from 1958! Incredibly it will have been laying in the environment for 62 years!
    via Rob Arnold
  • 05
    Text - Plant - ll Virgin 17:17 Rob's post This is the lighter fragments removed from the microplastics. The thing that always shocks and saddens me when I do these big litter sorts. All the white fragments here are from polystyrene packaging! Like all plastics, polystyrene will never biodegrade, it just breaks down into ever smaller and smaller pieces. Impossible to clean up, it's a pollution that will remain in the environment forever.
    via Rob Arnold
  • 06
    Text - Rob's post Not sure how I spotted this little treasure among the plastic fragments. Tiny mobile phone, possibly belonging to Sindy, Barbie or Ken. By the look of the style of phone, early 90's I would think. 189 3 comments
    via Rob Arnold
  • 07
    Rock - Rob's post WOAH A pyroplastic pebble.
    via Rob Arnold
  • 08
    Text - A pyroplastic pebble. Thought to be created from the uncontrolled burning of plastic. In the marine environment where it's exposed to the same erosive conditions as rock it wears down to look just like the pebbles on the beach. Much softer than rock it continually sheds microplastic particles, plastic 'dust' into the sea.
    via Rob Arnold
  • 09
    Text - Lego flippers from the Tokio Express container spill off Landsend in 1997. These flippers have been in the marine environment for 23 years! This particular pair looking almost like new, still connected to the sprue. Where have they been all this time?
    via Rob Arnold
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    Text - The number of flippers on the consignment was only 418,000. So Tregantle along with the rest of Cornwall seem to have retained a very high proportion.
    via Rob Arnold
  • 11
    Community - SORTING OUT LOCKDOWN This is the fun part of the big sort, filing away all the interesting items for future awareness raising photographs.
    via Rob Arnold
  • 12
    Text - Doh's nest PREVIOUS FINDS Tregantle Beach, Trinkets, Treasures and Trash. Date-able pieces including 17 items of Lego from Tokio Express container spill in '97, model Guardsman given away with Kelloggs Cornflakes in 1958!!. and vintage poppit beads from the 50's. Oh, and more Nestlé bloody plastic packaging!
    via Rob Arnold
  • 13
    Font - Last tally of Lego flippers from this sort, 290! I've been collecting Lego flippers from the 97 container spill for the last 3 years. I now have over 900 from this one Cornish beach, Tregantle. (Arty pic to follow)
    via Rob Arnold
  • 14
    Text - I think finding this many flippers supports the theory that deep sandy beaches like Tregantle capture the microplastic and then hold it within the sand, possibly for decades even. Had all these flippers been drifting in the ocean and washing in and out of beaches they would have dispersed much further away than the relatively short distance,120 miles or so from the spill location. So I think they must have been held-up somewhere, most probably buried in the sand along with the many other
    via Rob Arnold
  • 15
    Soil - DRYING IT ALL Drying microplastics in the back garden too!
    via Rob Arnold
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    Font - NURDLES BY THE MILLION! Some of the 5 million nurdles and bio-beads separated from the 250kg of plastic collected from
    via Rob Arnold
  • 17
    Text - Soil - SIEVING WITH A FIRE GUARD
    via Rob Arnold
  • 18
    Text - Text - BILLIONS OF NURDLES OUT THERE Some of the 5 million nurdles and bio-beads separated from the 250kg of plastic collected from Tregantle. Nurdles are raw plastic in pellet form. Manufacturers buy them in and mold them into the plastic products they sell.They're transported all over the world mostly by sea where billions get lost every year..
    via Rob Arnold
  • 19
    Text - Text - Biobeads are very similar to look at but have a specific single use. They're used in vast quantities here in the UK for the treatment of waste water. They shouldn't be escaping into the environment. Biobeads account for over 75% of the pellets found on this coast. These pellets are particularly hazardous to marine life because they resemble fish eggs,a favourite food for other fish and birds. As with all marine plastics, they contain toxic chemicals and are now known to be vehicles
    via Rob Arnold

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nature wtf trash history lego toys environment plastic
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