Net Benefits

Please forgive the obvious analogy, but after an hour of fizzing, frothing, rolling chatter with Manuel, I am left seeing the world – or his corner of it, at least – as a net. Interwoven threads of community, connection, conversation, environment, economy, consumption. More: change, momentum and the desire to make a positive difference.

Manuel tugs and pulls at each strand like a Chilean fisherman, sitting at the side of the shore, repairing holes, but instead of recreating the status quo, he is part of a team that is forging new connections, both metaphorically and literally.

This is our starting point. Manuel works as the Global Sourcing Manager for a company called Bureo. I’m talking to him from his home in Southern Chile, the country that has been at the heart of the company’s operations for just over a decade. During that time, they have had a singular business objective: to protect the ocean by taking end-of-life fishing nets and recycling them into new materials.

The company started as three founders, initially developing the technology to turn the nets into skateboard decks, then baseball cap brims. Now they manufacture NetPlus recycled nylon that can be spun to yarn and woven into fabrics. Visit Bureo’s website and you’ll find a counter in the top right corner. At the time of writing, they have recycled 10,169,241 lbs (4,600 tonnes) of fishing nets.

Keeping hold of our analogy for a little longer, the weft and weave of a net has two purposes: we have the safety net, where the tight knit of its connections is its strength. And we have the trap. The constricting, choking and claustrophobic snare. The net that brings anything but safety for those that it is intended for. This, therefore, is a story about the duality of the net. And before we can talk about the positives NetPlus is bringing we must understand the problem as it stands. 

A world away from – yet intrinsically connected to – Manuel’s seaside home, I am taken back to childhood holidays on the Scottish Hebrides. Mountains, but also beaches. Rocky coves to be climbed and explored and wide tranches of white sand.

And almost universally, especially on the South-West facing coast line, the jetsam of the fishing industry. Fluorescent buoys, crates, tangles of rope and tracts of net. And lying trapped within them lay the sun-bleached skeletons of fish, but also the occasional distinctive skull of a bird and matted feathers, encrusted in crystals of sand. 

Discarded fishing nets are considered one of the most harmful forms of ocean plastic pollution. When abandoned or lost at sea, they can entangle marine life, harm coral and seabed habitats, and break down into microplastics. They can operate at a high catch efficiency for decades after being abandoned and last for hundreds of years as they gradually break down.

Given that there is currently no real, viable alternative to plastic-based fishing nets, the solution must come at the point before old nets reach the ocean. 

And this is where Manuel comes in. When he started in 2018, Bureo was recycling 60 tonnes per year. Over the course of the next five years, they hope to reach 5000 tonnes per year. Big numbers. But big numbers that start with small communities…

“I am the ‘Net Hunter’! My role is to put in the groundwork and form relationships with fishermen, fisheries and communities. I live on the coast in Chile and that’s where Bureo first started to source their nets. I didn’t know much about the company when I joined, but I’d heard of their skateboards and when I joined, it was around the time that Patagonia had started using NetPlus to replace the virgin plastic in the brims of their baseball caps.

Our foundation is the small communities that we work with. Fishing is core to their economy and way of life. I’ll go and visit somewhere new and take a frisbee made out of NetPlus. We’ll toss it around on the beach and I’ll chat to the fishermen. I’ll listen to their worries, find out more about their town. And I’ll ask them for their old nets.

Usually they’ll assume I’m a farmer and want to use the nets for fencing. But they are always curious. Why do I want so many nets? I toss them the frisbee one more time and explain.”

That’s the first step. Then you talk some more. It’s easy to lay the blame for discarded fishing nets at the door of those who fish. But the overwhelming majority see the damage that it is doing to marine life. They see that with their own eyes, and their own pockets. It’s bad for the place that they love, but it’s bad for the catch too. 

“We don’t actively remove ocean plastic, but many of the local communities now collect and prevent end-of-life nets from entering the sea. The more nets they are able to offer us, the better it is for them. 

I’m not there to criticise them. The issue isn’t the fishermen, it’s the lack of end-of-life infrastructure for nets. I’m there to offer a simple solution. We will take their donated nets, so they don’t end up disposed of where they shouldn’t be, or burned.”

One stitch in the net.

‘Growth’ can be a dirty word. It can be synonymous with uncontrollable growth, unsustainability, Big Business. But growth carries with it so many positives. Growth can mean learning, growth can mean strength. Growth can mean the ability to make a true difference; not just to an individual, not just to a community, but to the world. 

“There was a point where we needed to source more nets than we could ever reach through simply working with small communities. We now work with larger fisheries too. It’s a running theme, but it’s easy to demonise the industrial side of fishing. Ultimately though, the conversations that I have with them are almost always universally positive.

Even the largest company is made up of individuals. And people care; and they want to change their industry from the inside. There’s also a bottom line consideration—an incentive for the participating fisheries. We offer to buy the nets that they would otherwise have to pay to dispose of.

From Chile, we have expanded to Argentina, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico. Did you know that Peru provides the largest fishery by volume in the world? And now, exploring opportunities in Africa, the Seychelles.”

I’m intrigued to know how a company founded on interconnected communities is able to replicate that not just in a different country but a different continent. 

“It will always be about one-to-one relationships. I find local people who care and build a core team; they become like extended families. They learn what is important to Bureo, but they also understand how their own country and community works.

We are always told that it’s okay to make mistakes. It’s exciting – we are always encouraged to try something new. We don’t want to lose control and we need to make sure that each facility is up to standard, but with each new operation we open, it becomes another opportunity to learn and grow in every sense of the word.

Practically there are still challenges. There are multiple steps in the recycling process. Generally, we do the initial processing in our local hubs; cleaning the nets and shredding them. At the moment, we are only able to do the actual recycling and processing to provide a clean feedstock, fibre spinning occurs with our supply chain partner.

It is bittersweet shipping nets across the globe,  but also the reality of consolidating recycled materials in manufacturing hubs. While we are still making a positive impact, we know we could be better. New manufacturing facilities represent an enormous investment, but we’ll get there one day.” 

And slowly, the net begins to reach around the world.

The recycling process is only truly sustainable if it creates an end product that is functionally comparable to its virgin plastic counterpart and is able to achieve that without other detrimental impacts to the environment. For Pertex, this means taking this material and turning it into high performance, lightweight fabrics which can directly replace those made from fossil fuel inputs.

Bureo recently completed a life cycle analysis comparing NetPlus and traditional polymers. The recycled fishing nets represent a 20% greenhouse gas reduction, a 70% water consumption reduction, a 67% fossil fuels reduction and a 68% energy consumption reduction. 

Perhaps the final knot in the net. The one that completes the circular economics; a product that will go on to live an entirely different life, hopefully for many years to come. And there is a certain satisfaction for Manuel and Bureo that NetPlus will be used in products that help people to enjoy the outdoors. It feels like the tightest of circles. 

We return to Manuel’s passion; the smallest communities that he works with. It intrigues me, and perhaps shows how Bureo differs from many other companies. The economies of scale are with big industry and large companies. They can offer the largest quantities of nets and fewer (but larger) contact points would appear to make the best business sense.

Manuel and Bureo have pursued the polar opposite of this approach however. The NetPlus recycling program intentionally still seeks out small local communities. Places where tiny fishing boats still pack harbours. Crews are family, friends, neighbours. It is in places like this that walking along the dock walls and Manuel will, more often than not, find a pile of netting; beyond repair and at the end of its useful life. 

“Rather than pay on a net-by-net basis, which would realistically be very small values, we create a community fund. We work with the locals to identify their social needs and invest in those. We want them to feel empowered and informed, and to be able to act as environmental custodians of their home.

We have added solar panels to schools, funded the building of a marine mammal conservation centre and supported other environmental projects. We create local employment opportunities, in small sorting facilities. And at the smaller scale of things, we’ve hosted hundreds of barbecues and invited groups to see our facilities, so they can see every stage of the process; from nets to end products.

Whatever that action, though, we want to be an active and positive member of the community. Keeping plastic pollution out of the ocean ends up having this much larger ripple effect throughout the places we work.”

It is a simple premise; connect something of value to what is seen as waste and you change people’s relationships with it. Take that a step further and take the time to become part of the community and you provide a pathway to improving economic resilience, health, and engagement in those areas you touch.

It is still late morning when I finish the call with Manuel. Spring is beginning to give way to summer in the Southern Hemisphere and sunlight is streaming through his window. He might head down to the beach for a surf. When he does so, he can be sure that he is playing a part in protecting the playground that he loves so dearly.

Learn more about Bureo and NetPlus® material here.