Circular Ocean – A new project to help enterprises gain money from old rope.

A transnational European project which aims to help turn waste plastic from the sea into a useful resource was recently launched in Sisimiut, Greenland.  Circular Ocean, which is funded under the EU’s ERDF Interreg VB Northern Periphery and Arctic (NPA) programme, will also soon see the release of a report entitled “The marine plastic waste problem: reasons for Northern Europe and Arctic to take notice”. The event featured representatives of the local Greenlandic municipality and project partners from Greenland, Scotland, Ireland, and Norway. It provided an opportunity for exchanging information and knowledge of marine litter and further cemented the partnership for future work in this area.

Circular Ocean aims to support the move to a more circular economy and inspire remote communities within northern Europe and the Arctic to realise the economic opportunities of discarded marine plastic, in particular, fishing nets and ropes. The soon to be released report, the first of the project, will outline key facts and statistics relating to marine litter and provide an overview of current estimates of the scale and impact of marine litter, which has a particular relevance to the region. The report will provide a strong basis and justification for the need for the development of resources that support the collection, reuse and recycling of marine litter.

It has been estimated that over 8 million tonnes of marine litter ends up in the ocean every year, of which 15% is floating on the surface, 15% is washed ashore and the remaining 70% sinks and rests on the ocean floor. Fishing related gear has been assessed by experts to be the most harmful type of litter to seabirds, mammals, and turtles, with the economic damage of marine plastic waste estimated almost €12 billion. The report will outline the potential impact of marine plastic litter, which due to its durability may take hundreds to thousands of years to fully breakdown. As a result, plastic is continuing to accumulate in the ocean, with research suggesting that it may contain 155 million tonnes of plastic by 2025 without significant intervention. This plastic will continue to entangle and be consumed by marine life, which has significant implications for the overall health of marine ecosystems and food-web.

Over the next three years the project partners are working with local enterprises and residents to provide and share information, knowledge and ideas to guide communities on how best to harness the hidden opportunities of discarded fishing nets. A Circular Ocean workshop will take place in Ålesund, Norway on the 1^st and 2^nd of September 2016 bringing together stakeholders to discuss current conditions and opportunities in developing a circular economy and green enterprises based on recycling and reuse of plastics in fishing nets and ropes.  There will be presentations from stakeholders in Norway, discussions on mapping important prerequisites to incentivise green enterprise development and opportunities for networking.

The development of eco-innovative ideas, learning and sharing of knowledge will be disseminated to entrepreneurs, the general public, and politicians, and will ultimately help the project partners to support the creation of social enterprises. This will be achieved partly through open source, free-to-use resources including feasibility studies on fishing net collection, environmental impact reports, case studies of existing projects, information on fishing net reuse and recycling options and examples of pilot work undertaken using fishing nets. The highly informative, and easy to navigate project web site has been developed to provide a one-stop access point to all these forthcoming resources.

Speaking on behalf of Qeqqata Municipality, Technical and Environmental Manager Hans Ulrik Skifte said at the launch “This Circular Ocean Project is a very welcome initiative. We have lots of old marine waste, mainly from the seafood industry. The problem is not only in Sisimiut, but old fishing nets are very common sights in Greenlandic towns and settlements. We still see the waste everywhere, especially near our waterfront. The old nets get collected, and transported to our junk yard. We are interested in discussing solutions for this part of the project, as well as all other areas of waste management. It is essential for us to participate in this matter, on the other hand, we don’t have endless economic and human resources in our workplace, and we have to take care of all the waste management issues at the same time. That’s why we welcome any external initiative, and work together with all of you.”

Partners involved in the Circular Ocean project include the Environmental Research Institute of the North Highland College UHI, Scotland; Macroom E, Ireland; The Centre for Sustainable Design, University for the Creative Arts, England; the Arctic Technology Centre, Greenland and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Norway.

What is Circular Ocean? View the animation to find out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGqiBfI8RSk

For further information on Circular Ocean  email info@circularocean.eu.