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SEWERAGE MATERIAL

There are all sorts of different plastic media used in sewerage processes and they come from all sorts of different works - water treatment works managed by our largest water companies or small private companies.Or even water treatment works on boats. 

Richard Kyriacou sent photographs of this partcularly type that he was finding in large numbers in Cornwall. At the same time, I was finding them further up the coast in North Devon. 

I talked to South West Water who supply water and sewage services in Devon and Cornwall, but they could find no evidence of any spills of this media from their treatment works. 

It seems that these round black bits of plastic started washing up in large numbers in and around the Lizard at the start of 2019. 

One theory is that they were spilt from a private company running its own water treatment plant, such as a holiday park perhaps. Another is that they fell from a ship transporting them as cargo.

The above map is the start of my attempt to map where we are finding these media. If you click on 2019, and then on 2020, you can see a potential pattern is developing with the 'epicentre' shifting from Lizard and beaches around there and the reach extending to Wales. 

If you have found any, please let me know so I can add it them to the map hello@beachstuff.uk

Thank you!