NET YOUR PROBLEM FISHING GEAR RECYCLING WORKSHOPS LAY FOUNDATION FOR KEYS PILOT PROGRAM

www.keysweekly.com

The Florida Keys is a renowned fishing community. According to the TCPalm.com, recreational fishing supports 1,700 jobs and $180.4 million of the Keys economy. On the commercial side, fish caught are one of the key export industries in Monroe County – accounting for 5% to 8% of the total income or jobs in our local economy, NOAA reports. So, there are a lot of fishermen and women out there using nets, line and traps to haul in their daily catch.

What happens to gear that has lived out its useful life?

A lot of fishing gear is made of plastic, which doesn’t biodegrade in the ocean. “Ghost gear” – lost or abandoned fishing gear – continues to “fish” and harm fragile environments like coral reefs after it’s been discarded into the ocean. A 2016 report by the Ocean Conservancy called it the deadliest form of marine debris – a “silent killer.”

We don’t want this plastic to end up in our landfills, either, because it still won’t biodegrade there.

So, what’s the solution?

A Seattle-based company, Net Your Problem, wants us to start recycling the plastic in our fishing gear into new products and alternative energy sources. And the company wants to help.

Net Your Problem’s mission is to create an economically viable way to recycle end-of-life fishing gear, improve waste management, contribute to the circular economy and reduce energy use and green- house gas emissions related to virgin plastic production. They do this by engaging a variety of stakeholders and partners – like Florida Keys fishermen.

The recycling process can look like this:

• Net Your Problem acquires end-of-life fishing gear. This can be from fishermen, the port, organizations or cities – anyone that needs help figuring out disposal alternatives.

• The company uses technology and testing to figure out what types of plastic each contain, then sells each type to the appropriate buyer. Only highquality, non-mixed plastics can be remelted.

• Buyers clean and “upcycle” the old gear into “new” plastic products or process it into certain types of energy.

Nicole Baker, Net Your Problem’s founder and Alaska and Pacific Northwest division coordinator, emphasizes how this model is economic and environmental. “We charge a fee for recycling, then we sell the materials to the recycling company,” Baker said. “So, we get money from both ends, and that is used to cover all the cost of collecting, sorting and shipping. So the fishermen, or the city, or the port just pays us to recycle and then they don’t have to do anything else.”

In the Keys, a recycling fee would hopefully replace what fishing houses already pay to waste management companies. For example, a trap yard in Big Pine Key pays hundreds of dollars monthly for management of a huge Dumpster full of old gear. What if this went toward economically-viable and environmentally-preferred recycling, instead?

1. Buoys are a type of foam plastic that can be recycled under the right circumstances. TIFFANY DUONG/ Keys Weekly. 2. This Trinamix device analyzes different types of plastic. Using this on old fishing gear, the Net Your Problem team is able to analyze more quickly what can and can’t be recycled. VINH PHAM PHOTOGRAPHY/Contributed. 3. Commercial fisherman Michael Becker welcomes the Net Your Problem team to his lobster and stone crab trap yard in Big Pine Key to discuss the needs of local fishermen.

On the other side of the transaction, Net Your Problem sells collected and sorted plastic to the appropriate buyers, who then process it into new products or burn it for energy. “The recyclers that we work with depend on us sending them good quality material – all of the same type – so that they can actually use it in the future for other product,” said Net Your Problem’s business and project development coordinator, Sara Aubery.

While this work started in Alaska, Net Your Problem has expanded to Seattle, California and Maine. So, can we implement this solution in the Keys?

In February, Baker and Aubery traveled the island chain to chat with locals and fishermen. The goal was to understand the key issues here – everything from when is the season really over to who currently pays for gear disposal to where collected gear could be stored.