Startup Is Turning Ocean Pollution Into Profits

Ocean cleanup, in this case, looks less like a charity drive and more like a full-fledged manufacturing business. As the New York Times reports, a Spanish start-up called Gravity Wave is pulling abandoned fishing nets off the seafloor and turning them into furniture, stadium seats, and other commercial products. Nonprofits, like the Ocean Legacy Foundation, are doing similar work to address so-called ghost nets—long-lasting nylon fishing gear that can linger for centuries, trapping marine life and smothering coral reefs, per the CBC. But Gravity Wave's approach is different in that it manages the entire chain: collection, recycling, product design, and sales.

Founded in 2019 by siblings Amaia and Julen Rodríguez, Gravity Wave works with more than 7,000 fishers in 150 ports across Spain, Italy, and Greece, paying them to bring in discarded nets and other ocean plastics. The company also partners with corporate clients that fund labor-intensive cleanups to bolster their environmental image and with manufacturers that buy the recycled material. The model hasn't been easy to build. European rules on cross-border waste shipments forced Gravity Wave to find local recyclers in each country, and many facilities initially balked at handling tough, machinery-clogging fishing nets.

Now, in an industrial zone near Valencia, the collected material ends up as turquoise plastic pellets and panels, which are cut into decorative pieces and furniture. So far, the company says it has collected 1,400 tons of nets and plastic, processing more than half. "We are showing that plastic can have a second life, and that businesses can profit while protecting the environment," Amaia Rodríguez says. Per the Guardian, another company, OrCA, has made a business selling nylon beads made from recycled fishing nets, which can be transformed into a wide variety of products, including filament used in 3D printing.