Image description: wigeon ducks taking flight from a body of water. The ducks are at risk from the biobead spill, as the seeds they forage for in Rye’s muddy flats are identical in size to the bio-beads, so it is likely they will be ingested. Image by Kev /Pixabay.
Last month saw a catastrophic spill of hundreds of millions of “biobeads” in east Sussex, following a failure at Southern Water sewage treatment works. The beads continue to wash up on Camber Sands and Rye harbour nature reserve, the latter an internationally important site for rare wading birds.
Helena Dollimore, the Labour and Co-operative MP for Hastings, Rye, has now launched a campaign with the Wildlife Trusts to get the use of these beads permanently banned. She told the Guardian “A month ago I wasn’t aware that these plastic beads were used in local wastewater plants until 320m washed up on our beaches and nature reserve, causing an environmental catastrophe. The use of beads is an outdated technology and better modern methods exist. So why are water companies still using them in coastal plants – the very place they could do most damage? We’re calling for them to bin the beads.”
Lack of data on the scale of risks posed by biobeads
While the government and regulators keep no record of which water companies use biobeads, where treatment works are located, or how many are in use, a recent Guardian analysis revealed 15 sewage plants on England’s south coast are still using them. These plants are older, mostly built in the 1990s and early 2000s. They use billions of floating plastic beads to create layers of biofilm, bacteria that purify water, which are separated from the environment by a mesh screen. Newer technology enables water to now be purified using electric currents, and using fixed surfaces made of ceramic or concrete. There are similar but more costly products made of glass, which is less harmful to the environment. Conservationists argue the use of toxic plastic beads in treatment works is unnecessary and outdated.
The health and environmental danger of “biobeads”
Biobeads contain a high 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 them smell like food to sea creatures, which then ingest them and can be poison.
Scientists at Kings’ College London tested the beads released in the spill and found they contained heavy metals including lead and arsenic.
The local Wildlife Trust say they have been struggling to deal with the spillage, with volunteers working tirelessly to remove the beads embedded in fragile habitats including the saltmarsh and in the shingle. The trust has said it would be ordering autopsies of dead birds found, to confirm whether the beads were a cause of death, which are likely to be ingested.
Henri Brocklebank, director of conservation at the Sussex Wildlife Trust, said: “There is only one way to guarantee that we never have a spill of bio-beads again. That is to stop our wastewater treatment works from using them. They are an old and redundant technology and we must see their use ended swiftly.”
Water minister Emma Hardy has written to water companies to find out the extent of their use of beads. The Environment Agency continues to investigate Southern Water after the spillage on Camber Sands.
Southern Water apologised for the spill and said it was unable to comment on third-party testing.