Recycling
We are always looking for new innovative ways to give value to waste, especially fishing waste that will otherwise end up being burnt, sitting on the sea floor ghost fishing or taking up space in landfills. All of which carry negative consequences for the environment.
It is part of our committment to the Global Ghost Gear Initiative that we work towards reducing the envirnmental impact from waste fishing gear.
Denmark
We have been working hard with local fishermen from the Sussex coast to ensure that all old fishing gear is recycled rather than sent to landfill. This is the current status quo and is operates at great cost to the fishermen and environment alike. We are the first place in the country to pilot a scheme as comprehensive as this and it has seen great success.
A mutually beneficial partnership with a Danish recycling company has led to the scheme taking off and we are currently in the process of exporting this framework around the UK so that more harbour can start to recycle.
For more information please look here, here and here for some of the media attention generated by the project.
Locally
Locally there are many groups trying to bring this issue to light and put waste netting to good use and we are proud to support them.
Ellie Birkhead
Ellie is a local artist who has recently graduated from Brighton University. She has been making beautiful brushes from old fishing gear collected from beaches the recycling bins at MCB. You can see examples of her work on her website here.
World Cetacean Alliance
The World Cetacean Alliance is the world’s largest Partnership working to protect whales, dolphins and porpoises (cetaceans). They, along with Whale Fest, have been focusing on the issue of ghost gear in the marine environment though mainly public outreach and awareness spreading. At their events such as the March of the Mermaids there are activities and displays to help communicate the problems surrounding ghost gear to the public. These have been created using mainly waste fishing gear that we at MCB were proud to supply.