When I pass piles of fishing nets, I see piles of money': a one man recycling revolution on the Cornish coast

"Ian Falconer kept thinking about the heaps of discarded plastic fishing nets he saw at Newlyn harbour near his home in Cornwall. I thought it's such a waste', he says. There has to be a better solution than it all going into landfill. Falconer, 52, who studied environmental and mining geology at university, came up with a plan: shredding and cleaning the worn out nets, melting the plastic down and converting it into filament to be used in 3D printing. He then built a micro-factory so that the filament could be made into useful stuff."

"Since its launch the following year, Falconer's company OrCA (previously Fishy Filaments) has raised more than 1m from small investors in over 40 countries. The investment funded the development of patented new machinery that can convert more than 20 kilos of nylon fishing nets an hour. He claims the recycling process has less than 3% of the carbon impact of producing new nylon. When they get to us, this particular type of fishing nets have typically been used by Cornish fishers for around six months, he says. They are routinely swapped out because their surfaces become cloudy due to wear and the build up of an algal biofilm. With time and repeated use, eventually the fish can sense them in the water and avoid them. Skippers can see their catches fall as their nets age and it makes sense to replace them."

Ian Falconer observed large amounts of discarded nylon fishing nets at Newlyn harbour and developed a process to shred, clean and melt them into 3D‑printing filament. He founded OrCA (formerly Fishy Filaments) and built a micro‑factory to manufacture useful products from the recycled filament. The company raised over 1 million from small investors in more than 40 countries and developed patented machinery that converts over 20 kilos of nets per hour. The recycling process reportedly has under 3% of the carbon impact of producing new nylon. Cornish nets typically last about six months before algal build-up and wear reduce their effectiveness.

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