Sand

One of Europe’s worst sites for microplastic pollution has been cleaned by the British company that developed the first vacuum cleaner capable of sorting sand from plastic pellets.

The protected nature reserve of Chessel Bay, on the banks of the tidal River Itchen, near Southampton, was left with microplastic pellets “a foot deep” in places on mudflats that are designated a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) and are protected under European legislation.

“It was quite an apocalyptic site,” said Josh Beech, founder of the microplastic vacuum cleaning company Nurdle.

Over the past four months his not-for-profit company has armed volunteers with the world’s first vacuum cleaners capable of sucking up millions of pellets each day to slowly rid the site of pollution.

“Some areas