Discarded Plastic Fishing Nets Are Turned Into Filament For 3D Printers

Discarded Plastic Fishing Nets Are Turned Into Filament For 3D Printers

An English fisherman who grew indignant at the number of nylon fishing nets he saw abandoned on the wharfs of Cornwall every year has moored his boat and invented new recycling technology to turn the nets into raw plastic again.

A skipper will replace his nylon fishing net every 6 months, says Ian Falconer, and most of the time they’re buried in a landfill, burned, or abandoned in the ocean to strangle fish and other wildlife.

But now, if that skipper just gives it over to Falconer, he can turn it into plastic granules that have been used to make dozens of different products, from lamp shades to razorblade handles.

It’s done with the patented technology and methods of his company 0rCA, which he founded after testing the method in his kitchen with used nets given to him by the harbor master of Newlyn, Cornwall.

0rCA has raised over $1.35 million in funding from big business like L’Oréal, Mercedes Benz, and Phillips, and can now turn 1 metric ton of fishing net material per day into little nylon pellets for use like virgin plastic in injection molding, or to spin into filaments for 3D printing.

Falconer estimates that around one million tons of nets are wasted every year, explaining to the Guardian that after several months of use, the filaments develop an algal biofilm and change from sharp, azure plastic obscurity into a cloudy grey color that the fish can spot. Skippers begin to see their catches shrink at this point, and toss the nets in the garbage.

However, it’s only a miniscule percentage of those nylon fishing nets that are wasted in England, much less Cornwall, and so 0rCA now offers the whole recycling micro-factory to harbors around the world for $500,000, delivered to them complete in a single shipping container.

MORE SOLUTIONS TO THIS PROBLEM:

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• Shrimpers and Crabbers Get Paid to Collect Abandoned Traps, Saving Wildlife from Derelict Fishing Hazards
• Fishing Nets and Carpets Can Be Recycled Molecularly Thanks to Genius Chemist and Brand New Catalyst

“The beauty of it is that it all fits in a shipping container and pretty much anyone can operate it,” Falconer told the Guardian. “So you could have one of these at every harbor around the world, converting a costly and hazardous waste into a profitable raw material.”