Support Measures

Promote the "Fishing for Litter" initative and extend the idea to more ports in the sea region. Economic incentives could motivate offshore workers to collect and sort waste. National or municipal authorities responsible for waste collection could impose a fee on the producing sector that is responsible for the items collected. However, more background data is needed in order to do this efficiently. Only then each kind of producer could be made responsible for their litter: mussel production; oyster production, fish production etc. Member States with coasts and marine waters will have to ensure that aquaculture and fishing gear are collected separately for recycling with a national minimum annual collection rate. This can be achieved by offering a sorting system for different materials. The SUPD, however, does not provide a specific collection rate. This has to be delivered by national governments and specific commissions. Offer a sorting system for different materials: a distinction must be made between light plastics (polyolefins, polyethylene PE and polypropylene PP) and high-density polymers (polyamide, PET). PP and PE are already being recycled into granules. Since PA and PET do not float during processing, the processes for recycling are still in development Increase activities to retrieve ALDFG by mapping of known locations of underwater obstacles in combination with the use of ship sonars. Develop clean-up methods and assess the reasons why and where farmers lose gear. Successful cooperation with aquaculture companies when mapping lost gear host areas and planning retrieval activities can motivate the aquaculture farmers to further engage in the work and helps to earn their trust. A deeper involvement of aquaculture farmers during mapping would show interest in their expertise and can change the attitude towards more sensitive topics, such as preventive measures. Support return or deposit refund systems (DRS) with monitoring data. One indicator for checking deposit systems is the return rate. This indicator can be used to determine the effectiveness of a deposit system and to retain products in the cycle (reusable) or disposable products. If monitoring is an integral part of the EPR measures, the marginal cost is almost zero. This may support the idea of high recycling rates due to the EPR measures. Basis for well-founded assessment of a newly established DRS for aquaculture gear packaging and/or other single-use plastic items is a solid database on the amount of non-refundable single-use items. Items need to be well-defined related to simple return system or DRS and should be integrated into established marine monitoring programmes (in the swash zone of beaches, on the sea floor and in the stomachs of selected indicator types). Some compartments could even be added, such as monitoring of defined aquaculture litter in aquatic systems to get the whole picture. Fix collectors at sea around the farms to collect waste at the sea surface. Increase the number of companies collecting and cleaning material in the water column and bottom (including divers). Use the current farmer’s associations as the basis to establish collaboration schemes to facilitate recycling and removal activities. Collaborate with the fishing sector to collect garbage in the sea Enhance collaboration with Marine Protected areas authorities, environmental institutions and NGOs in order to ensure a constant support for marine litter removing. Create synergies among the European countries to facilitate the setting up of removal and recycling systems. It is essential to add specific and easily accessible aquaculture gear collection points as close as possible to the aquaculture installations. In the case of the offshore farms, the collection points could be located in the port reception facilities. In the case of nearshore or onshore aquaculture facilities, waste collection points could be located nearby the farms, or gear producers could set a door-to-door pick up scheme. Aquaculture gear collection points could also be addressed to fisheries activities. Provide disposal points targeting specific material and/or gear, such as mussel nets, anti-predator nets, etc. In this way, concentrating bigger amount of waste in one point and hiring a company for the disposal operations can become economically feasible. Support the creation of deposit schemes for cages and passive aquaculture gear to raise the return rate of those products (including non-valuable items and/or single-use-items), with the aim to promote the reutilization and the recycling of the aquaculture elements once they get to the end of their life cycle. The aquaculture deposit schemes could be shared with fishermen Optimise existing recycling plants, including the cost reduction of bringing the aquaculture gear to waste management points. Therefore, prices should be adapted to the farmer volume production or economical benefits, not only to the volume of the gear that is collected and brought. " Support and promote the upcycling processes to ensure the economical viability of the 5R’s schemes regarding the aquaculture gear. For example, using nets to produce more expensive items (e.g. nylon for textiles) can help to cover the costs associated to the EPR systems, avoiding extra economical efforts for farmers and consumers. Support the valorisation of the waste market (look for markets): create businesses that use another type of material (not just nylon for example) to assess the type of waste and increase the demand of such materials. Support the development of waste flows which include as much types of polymers as possible, and increase the number of plants that treat all types of polymers. Professional collection systems are needed: specialised motor vehicles/ boats, tailor made to collect waste at sea from aquaculture equipment and installation. Professional collection systems are needed: cleaning vessels could be a joint venture of several parties based on shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Such a joint venture will enable parties to gain scale efficiencies by combining assets and operations; sharing risk for major investments and to access skills and capabilities. Professional collection systems are needed: cleaning vessels should target locations near aquaculture installations with high concentrations of debris and plan cleaning activities especially after storms. The development of good weather forecasting and modelling of wave currents may support this purpose. Professional collection systems are needed: innovative passive catchers placed outside the farm (depending on currents). We need a point to collect waste in each harbour. In the framework of the new port reception facilities, this should be included. This complements the facilities offered by commercial equipment companies that provide a point of waste collection for member companies. A way to remove the collected litter from the marine environment would be to bring it to the harbor, weigh it and get a receipt depending on the collected weight. This would help to monitor how much litter is being collected and to encourage/facilitate the recycling, as it could be brought to, or picked up by, the waste manager directly.   A way to remove the collected litter from the marine environment would be to bring it to the harbor, weigh it and get a receipt depending on the collected weight. This would help to monitor how much litter is being collected and to encourage/facilitate the recycling, as it could be brought to, or picked up by, the waste manager directly. Cooperation in collecting waste with other offshore sectors or local associations Cooperation in collecting waste between several (large and small) aquaculture companies may be economically most beneficial to collect their recyclable waste and add it to their own waste streams. Large companies could take the lead, whereas small companies could pay a fee instead of doing the actual cleaning work Put in place various contractual agreements with external contractors to collect used or damaged goods (cardboards and equipment) to be recycled or upgraded Waste collection services should be better promoted and waste collection, sorting and recycling business models should be financially encouraged by governements. Aquaculture should not be singled out as an industry that needs special regulations when it comes to waste material (non-biological, construction, equipment, etc). There are many other small-scale industries with similar materials appearing from time to time or regularly as wastes, so disposal and recycling should be linked up, not to be costly only for the aquaculture (i.e. economies of scale). This would make the logistics for handling wastes more attractive for specialized companies. Introduction of a passport model to give value to material: gear and material should have a licence /Passport and when it is given away, the document accompanies it wherever it goes. Recycling rebate – Farmers/fishers pay levy when purchasing new nets and get money back when recycling. Worn out gear and other requipement collection and recycling services should be better promoted and the business models based on their recovery from the sea, upcycling and repurposing should be financially encouraged by governements.