Net gains

OLD fishing nets beyond repair will be recycled instead of going to the province’s landfills.

Almeria’s Port Authority (APA) and the Fishing Products Organisation (OPP-71) have signed a six-month agreement with a company called Gravity Wave which will take away the old nets free of charge.

Based in Calpe (Alicante), the company collects unusable nets and plastics removed from the Mediterranean and transforms them into a new raw material for manufacturing street furniture, litter-bins, notices or any other product that would normally be made from wood or PVC product, explained Gravity Wave’s Alvaro Garcia Artiñano.

“As well as being a free service for the fishing sector the initiative is in line with the Port Authority’s commitment to the circular economy and, in short, to sustainability,” said APA’s president Jesus Caicedo.

Jose Maria Gallart, OPP-71’s manager, pointed out that for the last six years, Almeria province trawlers have been involved in removing refuse from the seabed as well as floating rubbish from the surface.

As well as helping to keep the Mediterranean as clean as possible, the 10 or so boats make a note of how much rubbish they remove, and where.

They then pass on this information to the Junta de Andalucia, providing the regional authorities with a clearer idea of how much domestic refuse reaches the sea.