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What does producer responsibility for fishing gear mean for your business?
Plastic fishing gear is covered by producer responsibility and clean-up responsibility. The area is regulated by the EU’s regulations on certain products made of single use plastic. Registration must take place in the producer responsibility register at DPA.
Plastic fishing equipment, including nets, lines and buoys, make up 27% of all waste dumped at sea and on beaches, which corresponds to over 11,000 tonnes per year (cf. the EU Commission’s Fact Sheet on the Single-Use Plastics Directive). Lost fishing gear can still catch fish and other marine animals over the years – but to no avail. This is called ghost fishing.
In addition, marine mammals and diving birds run the risk of getting stuck and thus drowning in fishing gear that floats around or lies on the seabed. Discarded fishing gear causes both ghost fishing and microplastic pollution, which does significant damage to biodiversity and the marine environment.
As the recycling potential is great, the plastic is collected in order to protect the environment and increase the circular processes. Producers and importers are now required to finance the clean-up, collection and disposal of discarded fishing equipment, as well as contribute to public awareness campaigns.
Producers pay for the clean-up, not the fishermen.
The Purpose with the extended producer responsibility is to
Reduce the amount of virgin resources
Increase real reuse and recycling of packaging materials
Force companies to re-design to more circular products
As a company, you get full responsibility for the amount of fishing equipment that contains plastic that you bring to market and the handling until end-of-life. It involves:
- Administrative and legal responsibility (documentation requirements, registering and reporting).
- Economic responsibility (companies to finance costs for logistics, sorting, recycling, registration.
- Practical/physical (sorting, collection, recycling).
- Clean-up responsibility (You must finance a share of the public cleaning costs for collection, clean-up and disposal, respectively)
Types, cleanup and allocation
A general distinction is made between the different categories of fishing equipment according to their use. Equipment used in connection with the functions below are all covered by producer responsibility and are categorized as:
• Commercial fishing equipment
• Other fishing gear
The legislation defines covered fishing gear containing plastic, which:
Any item or piece of equipment used in fishing or aquaculture to track, catch or farm marine biological resources, or which floats on the surface of the sea and is used for the purpose of attracting, catching or farming such marine biological resources.
Clean-up and allocation
End-of-life and discarded fishing equipment must be collected on land for collection and handling by the companies responsible for production. A number of ports in Denmark have been designated as the starting point for the geographical allocation that DPA must carry out. This means that the covered companies must pick up the used or discarded fishing equipment, which is collected at the specified ports, so that it can be handled as plastic waste. The distribution of the ports is based on a calculation of the proportional share of the marketed quantities that the companies concerned must report.
With European Recycling Platform you are in safe hands:
- Existing collective scheme in DK within WEEE and Batteries since 2005
- Many years of experience with producer responsibility for packaging in other countries
- Largest global network of experts under one roof in producer responsibility
- One contact person across countries for all your producer responsibilities (WEEE, batteries, packaging, SUP, fishing gear, textiles)
- Strong and solid owner (Landbell Group) with global coverage
- Large scale, which ensures efficiency in administrative and practical waste treatment, where the recycling rate is high and as much product and packaging as possible is reused.
- Cooperation exclusively with approved partners (logistics, reuse, recycling)
Make it easy and simple
As a collective scheme, European Recycling Platform (ERP) handles producer responsibility on your behalf, so you can concentrate on your core business.
Recycling Process
- Collection
- Separation
- Decoating (if coated)
- Melting
- Casting
- Manufacture
Recycling Process
- Collection
- Treatment (including sorting, cleaning and decontamination)
- Crushing and melting
- Manufacture
Recycling Process
- Collection
- Processing (including de-inking, cleaning and screening)
- Manufacture
Recycling Process
- Collection
- Compacting
- Melting
- Casting
- Rolling
- Manufacture
Recycling Process
- Collection
- Sorting and separation
- Shredding
- Treatment
- Manufacture
Recycling Process
- Collection
- Segregation
- Decontamination
- Production
- Final products
Simplification and efficiency. We have one point of contact across EMEA. The learnings from one market can be applied to other markets. It’s a benefit to have a common approach, a centralised point of contact which brings efficiency and cost savings.
