The Cordage Institute Welcomes NYP

Net Your Problem recently became a member of the Cordage Institute. This is a US organization composed of the manufacturers of rope, twine and netting and is a real step forward in terms of Net Your Problem building a coalition of businesses and organizations interested in taking responsibility for the end of life of their products.

Yes, fishermen use lines in their fishing operations. But we believe the following stakeholders also need to be involved in creating long term improvements to the waste management of fishing gear, and manufacturers of rope, line and netting are #1 on that list.

• As EPR ideas and schemes circulate around the world as a way of generating funding and harnessing responsibility for the disposal of plastic products, manufacturers of rope, line and netting should seriously consider their role in the disposal of their products. Companies selling rope and lines can become collection centers from a very distributed network of individual fishermen, they can add small fees to the sale of new ropes to cover recycling the old ones, and they can encourage fishermen to participate in recycling end of life schemes.

• Harbors and ports also have a role to play in making responsible disposal easy for fishermen. During busy fishing seasons, or at the end of a long one, disposal needs to be easy or fishermen wont do it. Infrastructure needs to be set up in ports where fishermen mend nets, and bins need to be labelled and guarded to ensure proper sorting of plastic maritime waste.

  

  The port of Gray's Harbor in Westport, WA.

• Fish/shellfish processing companies also have a responsibility to their seafood consumer (who very likely cares about oceanic plastic pollution) to make sure that gear used to catch their seafood products is disposed of in a responsible way. This would also make for a great "market differentiation" and including this material on packing or in advertisements could help that company increase their market share.

• Maritime insurance companies have an important role to play in reducing risk to vessels and supporting and incentivizing proper waste management practices for end of life gear can reduce the need for claims related to fouling props or clogged engine intakes if vessels encounter floating gear at sea.

• Local, state and federal governments have a vested financial interest in reducing the amount of waste that gets taken to landfills or is incinerated. Both of these disposal methods take up precious space, waste resources and increase the carbon emissions of the plastic value chain as more virgin plastic needs to be produced to satisfy demand.

• Brands that make things from recycled fishing gear plastic have a vested interest in ensuring their supply is maintained. They are able to tell great stories to their customers who want to purchase things that are having a planet positive impact on the environment, so they need to make sure that the raw materials keep being fed to the recycling factories.

We look forward to welcoming more members to our coalition as we work to build improved waste management systems for fishing gear around the US.