From plastic bags to household appliances, thousands of tonnes of waste are brought up from the sea in fishermen’s nets every year. After throwing much of it back and repairing the nets, fishermen are frustrated by this costly environmental problem. In Italy, an idea is emerging to bring the trash to port and recycle it. Most trash can be decomposed into its raw material—plastics, metals, etc.—and can enter the huge recycling industry for land-based recyclable waste. In a ten year period, fishermen bring up enough trash to cover the circumference of the Earth 15 times, says Paolo Tiozzo, vice-president of Confcooperative-Fedagripesca, speaking on this year’s Earth Day. It is a growing problem, but fishermen also pay the price for inaction—polluted waters.
Italy’s fishermen probably don’t relish the thought of hauling old tyres from the depths of the Mediterranean to port for recycling, but they might if they can be compensated for it. Plus, they benefit from knowing they are helping sea turtles, birds, and other marine life that make up the natural environment that fishermen are very much a part of. The recycling industry in Italy is worth 3 billion euros a year. It is well developed and can utilize added materials from the sea. Such waste is “invisible” in that we rarely see it except when it is washed up on a beach. But the marine environment sees it for hundreds of years. A plastic bottle will lie on the sea floor for half a millennium, and even cigarette butts can stay there for half a decade. Any trash, large or small, hauled up and properly disposed of benefits the environment Italy’s fishermen rely on.