Milspeed secures local supply of ocean plastic for recycled ranges
UK-based shoe components manufacturer Milspeed has revealed it has been working to reprocess discarded nylon fishing nets into recycled plastic pellets for toe puffs, heel counters, logos and more alongside environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy since March 2020.
The company has been creating waste-consuming components for footwear for around four years in total, according to Milspeed’s business development manager, James Milhench. One example is its Milguard Ocean toe puff and counter range, produced using end-of-life fishing nets from suppliers in the UK and Spain. However, this most recent net-reprocessing scheme, called the Ocean Recovery Project, allows the firm to harness its 20-plus years of technological expertise to make high-performing pellets from plastics littering local coastlines.
To date, over 40 tonnes of trawl nets have been repurposed, roughly 30 tonnes of which was collected by Tor Bay Harbour Authority from Devon's Brixham Harbour, alone. These nets subsequently travelled only 154 miles to Milspeed’s recycling facility, an improvement on the carbon footprint more typically generated when nets leave British shores to be recycled in Europe, for instance, or are landfilled.
Further “tonnes” of net have also been collected from the Scottish coastal town of Dunbar this year, Keep Britain Tidy added. Funding from ScottishPower Foundation and Swire Charitable Trust enables local authorities, fishing businesses and stakeholders to implement harbourside waste collection systems at zero cost to themselves.
The seaside towns of Whitby and Scarborough in northern England are next in line to play host the volunteer-led recycling service, which collects both nets and ropes and is described by organisers at the first of its kind in the UK. It is hoped that the initiative will be rolled out at harbours up and down the country over time.
