It could be called money for old rope. Enterprising people are being urged to look at ways of turning abandoned fishing nets into useful products.
Recycling is opening opportunities for small businesses and an EU-led project is giving incentives to people along our coasts.
There’s much publicity about the huge amount of plastic entering the world’s oceans, with about 10% of that coming from discarded or lost fishing nets.
The Circular Ocean project is trying to get people and businesses to view these nets as a resource that can be recycled.
Fishing net waste can be made into fabrics and yarn for the production of clothing, plastic pellets for industrial purposes, rope fibres for reinforced concrete, garden furniture, exercise equipment, kayaks and even fashionable bags.
In Ireland, one of the leaders in the field is the award-winning Macroom E, a company started by Cork County Council to help businesses make the most of recycling initiatives.
Macroom E is a partner with the Europe-wide project.
And, in Kinsale, Co Cork, brothers Levente and Attila Magyar are using materials taken from the sea, including sailcloth, to make a range of bags, wallets, belts and other products.
‘Ghost’ nets are a major nuisance in the oceans.
Turtles, dolphins, whales and numerous other fish, as well as seabirds, get entangled in the nets and it is now reckoned that more than 30,000 such nets are lost in European fisheries.
An estimated 640,000 tons of fishing gear gets discarded in the oceans each year and, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050 if the problem continues.
In Norway, for instance, Nofir was established, in 2008, to recover waste marine material which it sends to a recycling facility in Slovenia run by Aquafil, an Italian-owned company.
There, the nets are recycled and, Aquafil reports, one ton of nylon nets can create 26,000 socks.
For interested people, the Western Development Commission will be holding a workshop, at the National University of Ireland Galway, on January 22, bringing together a variety of interests from fisheries, fish farming, port authorities, waste management companies and research institutes.
International experts will speak too.
“There are significant opportunities for SMEs, or individuals, who are looking to get involved in this sector,” said commission chief executive Tomás Ó Síocháin.
Meanwhile, the number of trawlers and other fishing boats now signed up to Ireland’s Clean Oceans Initiative which involves fishermen storing and returning to land marine plastics that come up in their nets daily, is rising.
To date, 168 trawlers and 56 other fishing boats have signed, with 12 ports also registered. There is now 70% participation.
It could be called money for old rope.
Enterprising people are being urged to look at ways of turning abandoned fishing nets into useful products.
Recycling is opening opportunities for small businesses and an EU-led project is giving incentives to people along our coasts.
