2021 Edition

Forty years ago fishing nets were made of hemp that have been successively replaced with nylon, polyester and HDPE being lighter and cheaper materials. A working fishing boat can easily break their fishing nets needing them to be repaired almost weekly. Most of the times, the damages lead to produce a big quantity of scraps that, following the regional waste management dispositions, have to be disposed as “special waste” ending up in landfills. Fishermen associations are asking for fishing net collection points that are delaying in being created (in the whole Marche region there is only one collection point). Disposing nylon, polyester and HDPE fishing net scarps in landfills doesn’t allow any recycling process affecting negatively multiple Impact Categories (ISO 14040).  As you will be able to see in the linked video, we involved one of the few fishing net repairers left in our province (PU), Mauro Facchini (collaborating with Comar Pesca Fano), that shared with us his story and his concerns about the end of life of all the disposed materials scraps. Thanks to Mauro’s help we could collect all the material needed for our tests and prototypes.  NETTA is using broken fishing nets scraps recycling them to make public furniture with the aim of creating relaxing spaces where to rest spreading the awareness about the life cycle of these materials. NETTA have been designed using macramè style knots (flat twisted type) in order to be resistant and fully customisable to be installed in every urban space. NETTA can be installed in the seaside between piers rocks or in every other public space like in the city center, public parks, libraries, recreational areas, etc. NETTA will come with a label including a QR code that will link to informative contents regarding the issues of broken fishing net management and the opportunities given by recycling them.