We have an on-going program of exploring potentials to recycle other materials in the marine environment, especially those originating in the fishing industry.
For some the issues around marine litter and ‘ghost nets’ dominate discourse. Unfortunately the quality of the materials that can be found on shores and on the sea floor around the world is not reliable enough to base a ‘for profit’ business model on AND for that model to work at a global scale. Both the regulations around waste management and product standards work against us there as volumes processed increase.
Our model is very much defined by the opportunity to prevent harms rather than remediate degraded environments. In our case this means a focus on the potential for around 98% of the nylon monofilament nets used every year to cause harms on land or in the atmosphere, rather than the 2% that are lost at sea.
However that doesn’t mean we can’t explore alternative means to engage with environmental issues that intersect with our business.
For example;
- we’ve carried out a detailed technical exploration of the potential to use biogenic calcium carbonate from waste shells as a filler for the nylon we recycle, potentially to replace mined limestone in that application
- we now have a deep understanding of the economics of all types of fishing net recycling
- we understand the potential economic impacts of the beach clean movement in the UK and beyond
That we don’t use investors funds to support on-going programs in these areas does not mean we are unintersted, but it does reflect the difference between a for-profit business model and a not-for-profit.
For example; in our examination of waste shells as a potential filler there was good technical support for that program and we identified specific species that could be used, including farmed species. However the cost to acquire the shells in Cornwall was prohibitive, so it couldn’t work at a scale where the product could break even. But that is not to say that in other locations, especially those with more aquaculture, that the balance might not weigh in the other direction.