Fishy Filaments: Net Recycling

Fishy Filaments Ltd

Fishy Filaments: Net Recycling

Fishing net recycling infrastructure that is deployable and supplies an in-demand industrial quality raw material

Penzance, UK

United Kingdom

For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models

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Two problems, one solution. 150,000 tonnes of new nylon monfilament fishing nets are produced each year (and rising). The majority are buried or burned within a year of purchase. We can recycle them into an industrially usable form on the harbourside valorising those nets in-situ and before they leave the commuities for a second life as an ultra-low carbon industrial raw material. Within industry they displace newly produced nylon with an impact of up to 2 million tonnes per year

We have designed a Patent Pending mechanical recycling system that addresses the specific challenges of monofilament fishing nets, most of which are made from Nylon 6. Its efficiency means that the entire system can be shrunk down to fit into a shipping container and could be rolled out as a decentralised off-grid plant. The unit size reduces the capital cost and the investment risk of the new infrastructure. The low energy cost means that it can be used in regions that lack mains power. Backing the hardware with an offtake allows us to aggregate materials from multiple sites and reach an industrial scale.

There are at least three potential social impact populations; the fishing communities that currently live with end-of-life net wastes, the local and regional economies that have restricted access to high quality low carbon materials, and the general population affected by both the effects of climate change and the impacts of plastics waste in the oceans.