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Fishing nets are a necessary tool for fishermen around the world. But sadly, many of them end up in landfills, at best, and polluting the oceans, at worst. A man named Ian Falconer had experienced this firsthand. Hailing from Cornwall in the UK, he lived in a place known for its thriving fishing industry. Heartbroken after seeing discarded nets around the harbor near his home, he set out to find a solution.
Using his background in environmental and mining geology, Falconer came up with an alternative. He and his team collected the old nets, and then they proceeded to shred them, melt the plastic, and turn them into nylon filaments for 3D printing. What started with experiments in his kitchen has grown into an international operation called 0rCA.
The 3D filament produced by 0rCA has been turned into a wide array of products, such as sunglasses, buttons, razor blade handles, earrings, and even lamps. Mixed with waste carbon fiber from car and plane manufacturing, it can also be turned into parts for racing bikes and electronic enclosures.
Over its eight years of operations, 0rCA has raised $1.32 million in investment in over 40 countries. Thanks to this, Falconer has developed machinery that can turn over 45 pounds of nylon fishing nets an hour into filament. And all of the equipment needed conveniently fits in a shipment container, making it both easy to export and operate. According to the inventor, his recycling process has less than 3% of the carbon emissions of producing new nylon.
In addition to recycling materials, this endeavor is key to keeping oceans clean. Falconer estimates that a million tons of fishing nets are discarded. Their lifespan has to do with the very purpose they serve. While they start as a transparent blue hue, they grow an algal biofilm with time, which turns them a cloudy gray. As they become more visible, fish start to avoid them, resulting in smaller catches. On top of that, since it can easily get tangled, many landfill operators don’t like taking them, or they charge fishermen a large sum to dump their used fishing nets there, and they often can’t afford to have them incinerated.
Falconer told Cornwall Live that the fishermen he has worked with are thrilled to be contributing to the solution by donating their old fishing nets, rather than making the problem worse. “They love that they can see where their nets are going,“ he explained. “Because if they’re just going into a skip and then get transported off, they’re out of sight, out of mind. So they love that they’re doing it in their community.”
So far, countries like Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, South Africa, and Vietnam have expressed their interest in acquiring Falconer’s technology; a statement of how addressing a local issue can turn into a global answer. “You could have one of these at every harbor around the world, converting a costly and hazardous waste into a profitable raw material,” he told The Guardian.
To learn more and stay up to date with this initiative, visit 0rCA’s website.
It is estimated that a million tons of plastic fishing nets are discarded in the ocean every year.
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To combat this, a man named Ian Falconer came up with a way to turn discarded fishing nets into filament for 3D printing.
View this post on Instagram
What started with experiments in his kitchen has grown into an international operation called 0rCA.
View this post on Instagram
The 3D filament produced by 0rCA has been turned into a wide array of products, such as sunglasses, buttons, razor blade handles, earrings, and even lamps.
View this post on Instagram
And all of the equipment needed fits in a shipment container, making it both easy to export and operate in ports around the world.
View this post on Instagram
Sources: ‘When I pass piles of fishing nets, I see piles of money’: a one man recycling revolution on the Cornish coast; Meet the Cornishman turning junk fishing nets into everyday items
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