Trawl net recycling turns junk into plastic used in consumer goods, toys, clothing

 

Old fishing nets tend to pile up in storage yards and behind gear sheds, but there is an alternative. Recycle them.

In fact, last year enough old trawl nets were collected in Kodiak and sent off to Europe to recycle that the company Net Your Problem is planning another shipment later this year.

 

“Well, last year we collected two full containers of nets for Kodiak, so I’d like to offer the program again this year in the hopes that we didn’t get all of them last year. So if people are interested in recycling nets this year the deadline will be Sept. 1. That is the last time we can accept nets from Kodiak based on the Maersk shipping schedule.”

 

That is Nicole Baker who owns Net Your Problem, a recycling business that helps to keep old plastics out of local landfills.  She says the two containers full of nets equals about 65,000 pounds of waste not going into Kodiak’s facility.

Instead of going out the road to the dump, the trawl nets took a long voyage to Europe where they were given a new life by being converted to raw plastic, which is used to produce a number of consumer products.

“Trawl nets are made mainly of polyethylene and polypropylene plastic so the product that gets produced from the nets is what are called ‘nerdles’ or ‘recyclates’ depending on what you would call it, but they’re little beads of plastic that the recyclers sell to people that are making products out of plastic.”

 

And what do they make with these little plastic balls of raw plastic? While she can’t say for sure, Baker says there are any number of items that could have an old trawl net in them.

 

“There are a lot of examples now that you can see in the market now of people creatively making things out of recycled nets. You have sunglasses and skateboards and Jenga games, and bathing suits, and all different kinds of clothing items. So if people are interested in supporting this effort, there are a lot of products that you could purchase to show that there is a demand for materials made out of this type of plastic.”

 

Old trawl nets can be taken to the Brechan asphalt plant in Bells Flats.

Baker says salmon nets are made of nylon and will be collected at another time. They will be shipped to a recycler in British Columbia instead of Europe as the trawl nets do..

Contact information is on the website NetYourProblem.com.