The company, Frandsen WSC, which is based in Jutland, has invented a method to separate various types of trawl net so they can be recycled instead of combusted.
UK and other European fishing industries generate several thousand tons of plastic waste from fishing nets every year. Since nets and trawls are made from different types of plastic fibre which cannot be mixed if they are to be recycled, the nets have hitherto either been combusted or deposited as landfill. But with Frandsen WSC's new machinery, the fishing nets can be separated so that the plastic can be recycled.
Johan Frandsen of Frandsen WSC hatched the idea in 2005 and built the first model of the machine three years ago. He said:"It worked, and since then we have further developed and refined it so that we now are ready to run an annual production in full operation."
Frandsen WSC has entered contracts with all Danish fishing ports to process their fishing nets, and the company is currently making similar agreements with fishing ports in the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland.
The inventor has had enquiries from the global recovery industry. He added: "The concept can in principle be established anywhere in the world, but first we need to launch the project with the fishing nets."
Innovative Danes Create Recyclable Fishing Nets
DENMARK - A Danish company has successfully developed a method of separating plastic fishing nets which could reduce the huge amount of non-biodegradable waste being dumped in the North Sea by UK and other nations' trawlers every year.
