Recast and Recycle Winner

SCAD student Abigail Askew's Berkley Recycling Machine won the first place prize. Photo by Abigail Askew

Recycling old fishing line and soft baits into new products is labor-intensive, inefficient, and for many anglers, simply not easy to do. This hampers the ability to grow the volume of line and soft bait recycling in the U.S. However, winners of the BoatUS Foundation and Berkley Fishing Gear “Recast and Recycle Contest,” aim to change that. The prizewinners took home a total of $30,000 in prize money.

“Today’s fishing line and soft bait recycling remains laborintensive and costly,” said Alanna Keating, BoatUS Foundation’s director of outreach. “Working with Berkley, our Recast and Recycle Contest sought out new and innovative ideas to improve the recycling process, increase the amount of recycled material, or offer a technology breakthrough in the way line is recycled and reused.”

First Place - Abigail Askew

Before she began designing her winning concept, recent Savannah College of Art and Design graduate Abigail Askew designed her own survey to query anglers on what prevented them from recycling line and baits. She then addressed those concerns with her contest concept, which doubled as her school’s senior year capstone project. “Anglers want to do what’s best for the environment, but I found they don’t always know how to or have a way to recycle,” said Askew, who also competed on her school’s bass fishing team. Recycling accessibility became her contest entry’s primary goal, and her idea netted her a $15,000 prize.

Askew’s theoretical design repurposes an idea from old: colorful, eye-catching 1960s-style plastic souvenir machines. The “Berkley Recycling Machine” brings line and bait recycling out into the open, instead of throwing discarded line into a beat-up cardboard box under the counter at your local retailer. The injection-molding machine also has appeal for kids, who, while watching discarded soft baits get a second life, also learn the importance of keeping our waters clean. The young designer, who earned her B.F.A. in Industrial Design, offers that machines could be located in retailers and at launch sites, and could become a popular novelty.

For more and to see the second and third prize winners, visit the Recast and Recycle website: BoatUS.org/Contest. Full Range of Refit and Repair Services: Mechanical & Electrical Fiberglass & Painting Woodworking & Varnish Rigging & More

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