Pellet pollution on beach ‘likely’ to be from water treatment plant

HUGE numbers of plastic beads that washed up on a beach on the south coast are “highly likely” to have come from a Southern Water treatment works, the water company has admitted.

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Volunteers work by hand to remove plastic beads on Camber Sands

(SARAH TILOTTA/GETTY)

Southern Water apologised for the spill, which saw small plastic pellets strewn over the beach at Camber Sands in East Sussex, prompting a cleanup operation by the local council, experts and volunteers.

Local environmental group Strandliners has described it as the “worst plastic pellet pollution incident” they had seen there, and warned of the potential for a catastrophic impact on local wildlife, which can easily mistake the toxic pellets for food.