Discarded fishing gear is getting a second life as elegant, origami-inspired planters – because of a Glasgow-based startup reworking ocean waste into good design
A Scottish startup needs to show the tide on ghost gear by crafting hanging geometric plant pots from plastic recovered from discarded fishing nets.
The founders of POTR reckon their ‘ocean pots’ are the world’s first planters constructed from traceable marine plastic. Every carries a scannable QR code linking to knowledge that reveals when and the place the ghost internet was recovered.
“Traceability makes it actual for individuals,” mentioned POTR founder Andrew Flynn, a lecturer at The Glasgow College of Artwork. “The extra clear the journey, the extra it sparks conversations and makes individuals realise they are often a part of the answer.”
The Glasgow-based firm has reeled in a UK provide chain, with fishing nets recovered and shredded by Cornish marine waste specialists, Waterhaul. Reclaimed plastic is pelletised, pressed into sheets and at last die lower in Edinburgh.
One research by Defra discovered that the fishing and aquaculture business in Scotland and England generates round 6,000 tonnes of plastic waste a 12 months, a lot of it ending up adrift in our seas, or choking shorelines.
Each tonne of recovered plastic yields 5,000 ocean pots, and POTR is donating 4 per cent of income to cleanup efforts. The pots’ origami-inspired design means they are often flatpacked for delivery, slashing transport prices by 100 occasions, say the workforce.
Flynn mentioned he was spurred into motion after witnessing the detritus strangling Scotland’s west coast.
Waterhaul co-founder Harry Dennis added: “Ghost gear is probably the most damaging type of plastic within the sea. Working with POTR means we are able to take that materials and switch it into one thing helpful, one thing stunning, one thing individuals need of their houses.”
Major picture: Kirsty Anderson
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