Printers, Australian bottles, a washing machine from China, food wrappers that expired 40 years ago, fishing gear… The list can go on. It is everything that ends up in the sea and is recovered by fishermen in their day to day. A world of plastics that serves as raw material for all kinds of projects, from the manufacture of nets for baskets or goals to public furniture. New life for waste.
The fields are witnesses. Carlos Martínez has launched Ecoballution, which produces basketball, soccer or water polo nets by reconverting fishing nets from marine waste. In full growth phase, the idea that emerged in 2020 already has its product in Italy, Portugal or Switzerland. Through an agreement with Decathlon, it reaches 80 of the giant’s stores and its online portal. They are networks that last longer and have been seen in the ACB or the NBA. With three employees, five redeiras to make the product and headquarters in A Coruña, it hopes to reach a turnover of 100,000 euros this year. “The reinvestment is total,” explains Martínez, who points to an expansion into a clothing line with sustainable materials.
The desire to raise awareness is also important. As in Plàstic Preciós La Safor, a non-profit organization. From Gandía, he mixes difficult-to-recover garbage from the sea with recycled plastic in a variable proportion (such as 30%-70%) to produce boards that are later used for public benches, tables or chairs. A possible substitute for wood with which they recycle about five tons of plastic a year. The project invoices 60,000 euros, but it is insisted that not all are figures, because it seeks to train in a responsible use of plastic, in workshops and talks in schools. “We want to grow without losing our essence, working with waste that is difficult to recycle,” explains Vicent Pellicer, co-founder.
Substituting material is another alternative. José Ignacio Peleteiro is the general manager of the Galician EcoPlas, which in its range manufactures biodegradable meshes for garlic, onions or seafood that replace the typical traditional plastic ones. After ten years of research, this sustainable aspect today accounts for 20% of the business, of about 2.6 million.
From the sea also comes the project of Diego Vázquez, co-founder and CEO of Newmind. At the request of a client, he has found a new use for mussel shells. Rich in calcium carbonate, he investigates how to combine them with recycled plastic and give it more rigidity. Thus, it can be a substitute in certain applications of aluminum or steel. “We give use to matter without use”, he explains. The intention is to have a formula for the end of the year, serving to manufacture trays or door profiles, for example.
Different paths, common goals, the projects also share some challenges. How to convince the client to pay more for the product, since recycling takes more process and cost, which is transferred to the product. But as an advantage, they have less maintenance or more duration, the drivers point out. Scaling and making the business profitable is another of the walls to knock down.
They all put their solutions on the table in Baiona (Pontevedra) recently. It was within the framework of the five years of the Circular Seas program promoted by Coca Cola Europacific Partners and which has awarded several of them. “The most important thing is awareness,” points out Carmen Gómez-Acebo, director of sustainability for the company in the Iberia region. It has trained or sensitized 73,200 people. With the aim of cleaning the seas and promoting projects in this area, she collaborates in one of the initiatives with 17 ports to collect plastic (and other) waste from the sea. Through various initiatives, some five tons of PET plastics were removed in 2022 from beaches, reserves or the seabed.
“It is the most ambitious project in conservation, collection and removal of waste in the country,” says Gómez-Acebo. For the future, he sets his sights on biodiversity and on the exploitation of data collected these five years, gold for research.
