Barcelona (EFE).- Nearly 2,600 fishermen who have been in charge of more than 600 fishing boats, mainly trawlers and located in 43 ports throughout Galicia, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, Andalusia and the Region of Murcia, have removed 189,844 kilos of garbage of the sea during 2022, thanks to the “Upcycling The Oceans” project.
Wipes, industrial packaging, food and cosmetic containers or shopping bags are some examples of marine debris that fishermen from the project have recovered. A project promoted by the Ecoalf Foundation and Ecoembes, during the past year and which, later, become clothing items.
Garments made from sea debris
Ecoalf was founded in 2009 with the idea of creating a sustainable fashion brand and, to do so, uses plastics recovered from the sea to manufacture 100% recycled clothing.
For its part, Ecoembes is an organization that works so that society collaborates with the recycling of the yellow and blue container and thus give a second life to these products and protect the environment. They highlight that, to this day, four out of five households decide to recycle their packaging.
Since 2015, Ecoembes and Fundación Ecoalf, through their “Upcycling the Oceans” project, have worked to recover the waste that ends up in the sea, giving it a second life through recycling and the circular economy to transform it into raw material.
During the presentation in Barcelona, Nieves Rey, Director of Communication and Marketing at Ecoembes, highlighted the role of the fishermen: “They are the main protagonists of this project, since they are the ones who, through altruistic work, collect the waste that falls into their nets and to transport them to give them a second life”.
For her part, Andrea Ruzo, general director of Fundación Ecoalf, has pointed out that “marine litter is a global problem, and “Upcycling the Oceans” is demonstrating how the whole of society should collaborate in cleaning the oceans, and it is necessary to add citizen participation to stop dirtying the seas”.
The entry Nearly 2,600 fishermen collect 189 tons of garbage from the sea in Spain in 2022 was first published in EFE Noticias.