Fishy Filaments, a company that recycles end-of-life fishing nets into high-value materials for 3D printing and injection molding, is launching its latest Crowdcube campaign to fund the next phase of its growth. Targeting £150,000, Fishy Filaments was set up in 2016 to recycle old Cornish gillnets into virtually carbon-free marine nylon for use in advanced engineering and manufacturing.

Turning a problem waste into an economic asset, Fishy Filaments is looking help fishing fleets that have to pay for the safe disposal of their nets by providing a zero-cost recycling solution. This is something that it is already doing for the Cornish hake fleet in its home port of Newlyn.

Long-term, Fishy Filaments is working toward a future where fishermen in unregulated parts of the world will be able to recycle their nets locally using a network of Fishy Filaments’ plants. Fitting into a 40-ft. container, these chemical-free plants can be transported to remote parts of the world, requiring only water and power to operate.

Providing a new income stream for fishermen in these regions and an environmentally sound alternative solution for fishing net disposal, the materials arising from Fishy Filaments’ process have the potential to displace 2 million tonnes of CO₂-eq emitted by new Nylon 6 production each year.

Globally, 200,000 tonnes of end-of-life nets are either burnt, buried or discarded at sea each year. Nets that are burnt release vast amounts of CO2, while nets that end up in the sea represent a significant and long-lasting danger to both wildlife and shipping as ghost nets, taking up to 600 years to biodegrade.

Learn more here.