This article originally appeared on Ensia.

In 2013, Joel Baziuk had a problem. He had too many fishing nets and no good way to get rid of them. But that was about to change.

As the operations supervisor of the Steveston Harbor Authority, or SHA, just south of Vancouver, British Columbia, Baziuk is responsible for Canada’s largest commercial fishing port. At any one time, more than 400 ships are calling in the port. At sea, they land a plethora of fish and shellfish – from salmon and shrimp to sea urchins – which end up on the plates. All of this seafood is caught with nylon nets – seines and gillnets that can reach hundreds of feet in length. Many of these nets were slowly but steadily colonizing every inch available in Baziuk Harbor because many have deteriorated to such an extent that they can no longer be used for commercial fishing.

“These nets have always been there,” Baziuk said. However, since the traditional disposal options of burying or incinerating nets are limited and expensive, fishermen have simply stored their nets instead.

As important as it is, clutter is only a small part of the fishing gear problem. In many fisheries around the world, the lack of disposal options means that old fishing gear finds its way back into the marine environment, where it haunts our oceans as “ghost gear” with devastating effects. . Some 705,000 tonnes of fishing gear are lost or discarded in the ocean each year, and each year these gear capture and kill, among other things, about 136,000 seals, sea lions and whales. As ghost gear builds up around active fisheries, it can also pose economic problems for fishermen, as it kills fish or other seafood that they would otherwise harvest.

But start-ups capable of collecting and recycling old equipment and turning it into market-ready raw materials have recently emerged to help solve the problem.

Out of the blue

Baziuk was determined to find a better disposal option for the Steveston anglers. Then, “out of the blue”, a representative of a fishing gear recycling initiative contacted him. “They were looking to expand, they were looking for sources of fishing nets, they were looking for fishing harbors, and we are the largest in Canada,” he said. “I was like, ‘OK, well maybe there’s something we can do to help.'”

Since that first phone call in 2013, Steveston Harbor has recycled over 40 tonnes of nylon fishing gear, with more in the works.

Recycling of fishing gear is still in its infancy. Only two companies, Italian yarn producer Aquafil and Danish cleantech company Plastix, have the technology and resources to do this on a large scale. Both were created in response to the ghost craft problem, and both are expanding to serve ports in Europe and around the world.

Steveston Harbor started sending its nylon nets to Aquafil’s recycling plant in Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2014. Aquafil covers the shipping costs and pays Steveston Harbor a small fee for the nets. Once in Slovenia, the nets are made into yarn which can be made into products such as socks and carpet tiles.

The lack of disposal options means old fishing gear finds its way back into the marine environment, where it haunts our oceans as ghost gear with devastating effects.

Aquafil has already recycled hundreds of tons of fishing gear since its inception in 2013. Most of this gear comes from the Healthy Seas initiative, a collaboration between Aquafil, carpet maker Interface and other companies and organizations in non-profit. The objectives of the initiative are, in the words of project coordinator Veronika Mikos, “to clean up the marine environment” and “to show that [a] circular economy, waste is a resource. While Healthy Seas operates primarily in Europe – in North Sea, Adriatic and Mediterranean ports – Aquafil’s partnership with Steveston demonstrates the company is eager to grow.

“The amount of nets collected from year to year is increasing exponentially,” Mikos said. “Finding the right local partners is the key to the success of any initiative and, of course, to the availability of financial resources. If these criteria are met, we have great potential to expand into other countries. “

Recycle even more

How do thousands of pounds of commercial fishing nets get from Canada to Slovenia? First, the fishermen hand over their gillnets and seines to SHA free of charge. Then, the non-recyclable components of the seines and gillnets must be removed to prepare the nylon nets for shipment. This work is carried out by fishermen, paid for their work on a lump sum that Aquafil pays to SHA. Pure nylon netting comes packaged in bags that will weigh between 800 and 1,000 pounds when full. The bags are ready to ship when 40,000 pounds of nylon have been packed.

Unfortunately, as Aquafil only recycles nylon6, fishing gear such as trawls and crab pots currently cannot be recycled in Steveston. Baziuk said he would like to recycle everything harbor fishing gear, not just nylon. Plastix could make this possible. Founded in 2012, Plastix can convert not only nylon6, but also trawl nets and metal fishing gear components, into valuable raw materials. It connects to ports around the world through the Global Ghost Gear Initiative, or GGGI.

Recycling of fishing gear is still in its infancy. Only Italian yarn producer Aquafil and Danish cleantech company Plastix have the technology and resources to do this on a large scale.

“The ultimate goal is to stop the influx of waste into the marine environment and find solutions to better meet the waste challenge,” said Hans Axel Kristensen, CEO of Plastix. In addition, he said, the company wants to encourage “a greener and circular economy in the maritime industry”.

GGGI has helped ports like Steveston connect to new recycling options like Plastix.

“Recycling fishing gear can significantly help reduce the volume of ghost gear entering our oceans,” said Ingrid Giskes, Sea Change Campaign Manager at World Animal Protection, who founded GGGI. Not only that, she said, but in cases where fishing gear has already been lost at sea, “clear methods and means of recycling the gear are an incentive for fishermen to retrieve the fishing gear and put it away. bring back to earth “.

Where next?

Baziuk hopes to help expand recycling initiatives to more ports in Canada in the years to come. This will require him, GGGI and companies like Aquafil and Plastix, to overcome the two main obstacles to recycling fishing gear: logistics and awareness.

“Transport costs are a big issue,” Baziuk said, as small ports have to pay to move the nets to larger ports from which recyclers are willing to pay for the transport.

Giskes agreed. “[A] The key to a successful recycling project is greater availability and access for fishermen to port disposal and reception facilities, ”she said.

Currently, Baziuk is working to enlist Prince Rupert, another port in British Columbia, as another hub for recycling fishing gear that can serve smaller ports in the region. But coordination efforts have been slow. In the meantime, he said, “we are trying to develop ourselves along the coast of [British Columbia] to show that a whole rib can be done, and once we do, we’ll go from there. “

Meanwhile, GGGI and other organizations, such as Circular Ocean, are raising awareness about fishing gear recycling internationally. Recycling initiatives are also linked to ghost equipment recovery programs through initiatives such as Net-Works, and Plastix is ​​promoting recycling through a new certification program.

Surprisingly, getting the word out locally can be more difficult. “Few fishermen these days are connected [to the internet]”Baziuk explained.” It is difficult to communicate information to people who are not necessarily connected. The good news is that once fishermen realized that recycling is an option, they were very receptive.

If Baziuk and the recycling companies are successful in establishing collection centers across Canada, ports across the country will recycle long after Steveston sends his last old forgotten net. And, eventually, net recycling may well spread around the world.