A collaborative project between a group of partners to recycle nylon fishing and aquaculture gear could become an industry turning point, depending on the outcome of full-scale trials now in progress

Recycled fishing gear is not new, and a number of companies around the world are working with fishing and aquaculture gear to turn it into something useful instead of it becoming landfill – but there are a number of challenges associated with this, not least that there are only so many times that the shredded material can be recycled, losing some of its strength and other qualities with each successive generation.

The Circular Fish Farming Nets (CFFN) project aims to recycle nylon using a different approach, which is predicted to maintain all of the strength and other qualities of virgin material – and it’s nominated for the Aquaculture Awards 2024.