A Coruña, Apr 28 (EFE).- From the sea of Galicia, to Benito Villamarín. One hundred kilos of nets from marine waste have been transformed into the new meshes for the Betic stadium, the ones that Ayoze Pérez debuted this month against Espanyol. They traveled 900 kilometers to have a second life. Sport does not get tangled, it recycles it. Marine debris is turned into sports equipment.
“In two and a half years we have collected and restored 8 tons of marine waste by hand,” explains Carlos Martínez, a Spanish 3×3 international basketball player from A Coruña to Efe, who in December 2020 launched the firm Ecoballution “with the idea of recycle and clean the sea and convert that waste into valuable sports products”.
In the Villamarín networks, he collaborates with Finetwork and LaLiga and this move has managed to reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere by 166.37 kilos.
His company has also collaborated with the NBA, Foot Locker, the ACB or Endesa and sells its approved net for basketball hoops in 80 Decathlon stores in Spain. In addition, he makes bags for balls with recycled nets.
Countries like Italy, Switzerland or Denmark have the Ecoballution network on their street courts.
Cholita products also travel from A Coruña. It stands out for its bags made with recycled nets and, in addition, it was one of the pioneers in reusing traps. In 2021, the children of the Spanish basketball championship that was held in Betanzos (A Coruña) already scored in their baskets.
Cholita is committed to giving “new life to ghost networks, cleaning seas and consciences.” They even have fixed or mobile stands made from recycled material.
Both Ecoballution and Cholita have in common the work of the Galician ‘redeiras’ (network nets). Among them, the Association of Redeiras Illa da Estrela, from Corme (A Coruña). Its president, Rosa Rodríguez, explains to Efe that her main job is to make tackle and fishing gear, but in 2012 they diversified the business and gave a second life to what had been thrown away until then.
In recent years, his hands make sports equipment. He says that Carlos Martínez’s project came to them at a time when they did not have much workload. Since then, they have already carried more than 3,000 baskets with their seal. Nor do they resist the goals.
Reaching the finish line takes them about six hours. “What takes the most time is choosing the net, giving it a wash and cutting it,” he explains. Not all the material works. Nylon ones are the best.
Celta, Deportivo and Lugo received fifteen sets of nets in 2022 (for 30 goals) from the ‘Redes Vivas’ project, launched in 2021 by the financial entity Abanca to recover abandoned fishing nets in coastal areas.
The ‘redeiras’ from Malpica, also in A Coruña, and those from Corme wove these tights that were placed in the training camps of the three clubs.
Before football, Abanca recovered 1,400 kilos of nets to transform them into 1,500 square meters of new netting for 78 goals for 39 clubs sponsored by the bank within the framework of its Abanca Deporte Base project, which includes handball, futsal, roller hockey, kayaking polo and field hockey.
With all these initiatives, the balls are housed at the bottom of the net… but recycled.
Carlos Alberto Fernandez