THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 24, 1995 TAG: 9502240539
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WANCHESE LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
Albemarle-area watermen gave 21 tons of commercial fishing gear a second life this month.
Under an innovative program sponsored by Sea Grant of North Carolina State University, fishermen helped recycle 39,800 pounds of crab pots and 3,500 pounds of nets.
The crab pots will be crushed and sold to a Chesapeake dealer as scrap metal. The polyester fiber and monofilament nets will be sold to a separate Virginia broker.
``Crab pots will help make new steel. And the nets will be melted down so that the fibers can be re-used to create other plastic products,'' said Doug Bonds, marketing director for the East Carolina Vocational Center in Greenville. ``The money we get back will just about pay for the recycling efforts.''
Scrap metal brings about 1 cent per pound. Nets are worth between 4 and 6 cents per pound, said Gerry Sutton of the North Carolina Office of Waste Reduction. Nets can be turned into bicycle seats, sneakers, jacket liners and other items.
``We got a $41,000 grant for this project from the National Marine Fisheries Service's marine debris removal program,'' said Sea Grant spokeswoman Carla Burgess of Raleigh. ``Most of that money went for preliminary meetings with watermen and planning.'' Profits from the recycling will reimburse the East Carolina Vocational Center for baling and transportation costs.
``We'll pretty much break even on this project thanks to the waste haulers, who donated their time and services,'' Sutton said Thursday from his Raleigh office. ``It would've cost us $3,000 or more to cart that stuff away if we'd had to pay for it. Now, the program will be able to pay for itself. And none of the products will have to go into landfills.''
From Jan. 24 to Feb. 5, watermen were invited to deposit unwanted crab pots and commercial nets in Dumpsters set at 17 fish houses, docks and other sites across the Carolina coast. In Dare County alone, watermen dropped off 10 tons of used gear. Crab pots accounted for all but 1,000 pounds of that equipment.
``This is a first-time experiment. It's never been done anywhere before. And we're very, verypleased with the results,'' said Sea Grant spokesperson Lundie Spence, of the national office in Bethesda, Md. ``Our goal was to show that fishermen care enough about their environment to help clean it up. And they turned out in droves to prove they do.''
Each year, Spence said, North Carolina watermen set about 800,000 crab pots in coastal waterways. About 250,000 of those pots are lost to rust, storms, thieves, trawlers or other mishaps. Some of those pots wind up in landfills. Others clog creeks and docks. The recycling program aimed to get some of those unwanted crab pots out of the waste stream.
``One thing we learned is that we should've done these collections a little bit later,'' Sutton said. ``The fishermen told us that if we'd waited until the end of March to pick up their gear, they'd have had about triple the number of crab pots out here. If we do this program again - and I hope we will - it should be scheduled about two months later.'' MEMO: FISHING GEAR RECYCLING PROGRAM
Sea Grant of N.C. State University sponsored a commercial fishing
gear recycling program this month. Several other state and private
groups helped support the effort. Fish houses and businesses across the
coast allowed Dumpsters to be set sites.
Besides Sea Grant, other agencies supporting the recycling programs
included:
State Division of Marine Fisheries
State Office of Waste Reduction
Waste Industries Inc. of Newport and Elizabeth City
Smithton Sanitation Inc. of Washington, N.C.
FBI Inc. of Kinston
Reliable Disposal of Edenton
Dare County Public Works of Manteo
Waste Management of Hampton Roads
American Refuse System, Inc. of New Bern
Albemarle Solid Waste Authority of Belvidere
Coastal Regional Solid Waste Authority of New Bern
Source: Sea Grant of N.C. State University
by CNB