16 January/February 2012
Fishing nets are
sorted according
to specifi cation
and sold for
recycling.
Mining the oceans:
the floating landfill
Developed societies have long
recognised that ‘wastes’ consigned to
landfill often contain commercially
recoverable quantities of secondary
raw material. Now, waste managers
and other problem-solvers are looking
to tap into a less-visible source of
recyclables – namely, those floating
in the oceans. Political and industry-
led initiatives are currently targeting
this mammoth material reservoir.
Marine litter is a global problem. Approx-imately 6.4 million tonnes of waste is
estimated to reach the oceans each year, consist-
ing of a wide range of materials including plas-
tics, wood and metals – mostly from land-based
sources – which can be carried around the
world by ocean currents.
This debris not only causes environmental dam-
age but also incurs significant economic costs
for industry. A recent study estimated that
marine litter in the Asia-Pacific region is likely
M A R I N E D E B R I S By Gert Van der Have
Fishermen are often
accused of being the
worst polluters of
the world’s oceans.
Whether this criticism is accurate or not,
Norsk Fiskeriretur AS – or Nofir for short
– is doing something about it: it is one of
the first companies dedicated solely to
recycling fishing industry debris. The
Norwegian firm collects and sorts
‘plastics from the sea’ along
the country’s coastline. Here,
Recycling International speaks
with Oistein Aleksandersen,
Nofir’s founder and Director.
How did you get involved in this kind
of business?
I was an employee at a fishing net manufacturer
as a recently-graduated Master in Economics. At
that time, the problem of discarded plastics was
immense; a manager of the company once vis-
ited a conference where this topic was addressed.
He decided to explore if recycling could become
a suitable option. Proper disposal of plastics was
very expensive because landfill rates were very
high. When working with my next employer, a
Norwegian waste management company, a
problem had arisen there too with fishing nets
damaging the company’s machinery. That’s how
I got the idea to collect it all over Norway, sort it
and re-sell it for recycling and reuse – so that’s
how I started Norsk Fiskeriretur in 2008.
What are its core activities?
Mostly we are speaking about fishing nets, ropes,
caging and trawls. It’s all equipment used in the
fishing or fish-farming industries. We collect it
and sort it into the right type of plastic and
industry specifications, and then we re-sell the
different types of plastic to processors. Last year,
Fishing nets:
trawling for
a sustainable
solution
Oistein Aleksandersen, Nofi r
Interview
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